Foreign Environmental Claims In U.S. Federal Courts

In previous columns, I have discussed the challenges faced by foreign plaintiffs seeking relief in U.S. federal courts for environmental damage abroad by U.S. or foreign transnational corporations. (See, e.g., " After 'Sosa': Environmental Claims Under the Alien Tort Claims Act-Part II," Oct. 26, 2004; "International Standards for Corporate Conduct," April 30, 2012.) Within the past month, there have been major developments in three unrelated cases—one in the U.S. Supreme Court, one in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and one in the Southern District of New York—that both narrow opportunities for foreign plaintiffs to seek federal judicial relief for environmental injury abroad and demonstrate why the courts should be more open to at least some of those claims.