Corporate Liability and Human Rights: A Historical Perspective

Kiobel v Royal Dutch Petroleum is a current United States Supreme Court case in which a group of Nigerian environmental protesters are suing Royal Dutch Petroleum for aiding and abetting the Nigerian governments crackdown on environmental protesters from 1992-1995. The Nigerian plaintiffs are suing under the American Tort Statute, a controversial US law that allows non-citizens to press charges for violations of international norms committed on foreign soil. This paper will take a historical account of human rights development at the international level since World War II to better understand both the origins and definition of human rights. It will also look at the parallel development of US human rights law, specifically the Alien Torte Statute, to determine the relationship that US law has with international law. Finally it will take a critical look at the Kiobel case to determine the legal and moral issues that are intrinsically tied to corporate liability in human rights cases. The research will involve court cases from the United States and interna- tional treaties and conferences. Ultimately it hopes to prove that corporations have a legal liability to uphold human rights.