The Forum Non Conveniens Decision

Over the past 15 years, there has been a surge of litigation in U.S. courts brought by foreign plaintiffs alleging harm from actions purportedly taken by U.S. companies in foreign countries. These lawsuits are generally brought under the Alien Torts Statute, 28 U.S.C. ' 1350 (“ATS”), a statute enacted in 1789 to provide U.S. jurisdiction for “violations against the law of nations.” The ATS was first enacted in response to attacks on U.S. ships by the Barbary pirates, and it lay dormant until the 1970s, when human rights lawyers began using it to prosecute human rights claims against foreign dictators and repressive regimes. In the mid-1990s, however, plaintiffs' attorneys started using the ATS to target multinational corporations that allegedly injured residents in foreign countries, and the theories of liability began expanding to include, inter alia, environmental tort claims and product liability litigation. Since that time, over 120 ATS lawsuits have been brought by foreign plaintiffs against a wide array of U.S. corporations, including companies in the oil, mining, financial services, food and beverage, transportation, and communications industries. See U.S. Chamber of Commerce Institute for Legal Reform, Think Globally Sue Locally: Out-of-Court Tactics Employed by Plaintiffs, Their Lawyers, and Their Advocates in Transnational Tort Cases, at 17-18 (June 2010), available at http://www.instituteforlegalreform.com/images/stories/documents/pdf/international/thinkgloballysuelocally.pdf.