Encouraging Corporate Social Responsibility with the Alien Tort Statute

Abstract

In 1980, Filartiga v. Pena-Irala resurrected the once-dormant Alien Tort Claims Act, also known as Alien Tort Statute (“ATS”), in the United States federal district courts. Under the ATS, aliens file suit in the federal district courts under the premise of subject matter jurisdiction, seeking redress for wrongs committed in contravention of the “law of nations or a treaty of the United States.” Since Filartiga, the Courts have “published only nine significant decisions on the ATS” with the Supreme Court deciding only one ATS case in its entire history. Nevertheless, a majority of these claims are brought into the Southern District of New York. One of the greatest difficulties that federal courts have faced is interpreting a statute that may affect foreign relations. As Justice Scalia suggested in Sosa v. Alvarez-Machain, the courts welcome any “congressional guidance” as to the exercise of jurisdiction that has “potential to affect foreign relations.”