Supreme Court Addresses For The First Time

On Monday, June 29, 2004, the United States Supreme Court issued a compromise decision that leaves many corporations in the mining or oil and gas industries still susceptible to allegations that their operations abroad (often in conjunction with foreign governments) have inflicted labor or human rights abuses on foreign workers, but which may help limit the types of claims they face. In Sosa v. Alvarez-Machain, ___ U.S. ____ (2004), the Supreme Court addressed for the first time the Alien Tort Claims Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1350, which increasingly has sparked litigation in U.S. courts against multinational corporations for alleged human-rights and environmental abuses occurring outside the United States.