In a landmark case, US District Court Judge Shira Scheindlin in Manhattan had issued a ruling that said corporations may be held liable for human rights abuses committed overseas under an existing law allowing non-US citizens to sue US companies on the basis of violations of international law, according to a report from Bloomberg.
This struck a major blow against the petition of US corporate giants General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co. and International Business Machines, who sought to block lawsuits filed by victims in the United States, specifically during the apartheid regime in South Africa.
Judge Scheindlin said, "No principle of law supports the conclusion 'that the norms enforceable through the ATS (Alien Torts Statute) - such as the prohibition by internatonal law of genocide, slavery, war crimes, piracy etc - apply only to natural persons and not to corporations." She thus rejected the argument of the US companies that interpreted the application of the 1789 Alien Tort Statute, giving multinationals a shield and defense against these kinds of statutes.
The next step would be the Supreme Court, as the companies appeal the decision of the US federal judge. Previously, the High Court had protected multinational firms from some of the lawsuits filed for the atrocities committed overseas, when it dismissed a 2013 lawsuit that accused foreign subsidiaries of the Royal Dutch Shell Pfc of facilitating torture and executions of citizens in Nigeria.
The plaintiffs in the apartheid case, which included individuals who suffered torture and other indignities, as well as relatives of those that died in those atrocities, claim these companies had knowingly helped the regime through the sale of weapons, as the companies provided finances as well as revenues for the government to intitutionalize these atricocities as the multinational firms conducted business in South Africa.
Judge Scheindlin, in her decision, advised that the plaintiffs can file an amended complaint to indicate the US firms' actions had touched the United States with 'sufficient force' to overcome the presumption set forth in the Alien Tort law. Furthermore, proof must be adduced that the multinational firms acted 'with knowledge' but also 'with the purpoe to aid and abet the South African government's actions alleged in the lawsuit.
