The Alien Tort Claims Act

In recent years, companies doing business in countries where human rights or environmental violations have occurred have found themselves dragged into U.S. courts as defendants in lawsuits brought by foreign plaintiffs to account for violations ' often committed by others, including foreign governments. Although some of these cases are well-known, the legal foundation for the claims is not. An obscure piece of legislation passed more than 200 years ago was raised in the case against Yahoo! and many others like it. Unfortunately, this strategy is only becoming more relevant. Although the statute was initially interpreted to provide redress in limited situations involving foreigners, including to provide comfort to reluctant foreign diplomats traveling to the United States in the post-Revolutionary period, it has more recently been used by U.S. Plaintiff's lawyers as a popular way of hauling multinational corporations into U.S. courts for torts actually committed by others where the companies did business.