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Article

3 Apr 2017

Author:
Adam Liptak, New York Times

Supreme Court to Weigh if Firms Can Be Sued in Human Rights Cases

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The Supreme Court agreed on Monday to decide whether corporations may be sued in American courts for complicity in human rights abuses abroad. The case concerns Arab Bank, which is based in Jordan and has been accused of processing financial transactions through a branch in New York for groups linked to terrorism. The plaintiffs in the case seek to hold the bank liable for attacks...The case turns on the meaning of the Alien Tort Statute...The federal appeals courts are divided over whether corporations may be sued under the law. The new case, Jesner v. Arab Bank...is likely to produce an answer. It is an appeal from a decision...which ruled in favor of Arab Bank, saying that corporations may not be sued under the 1789 law. The plaintiffs in the case said the bank had “served as the ‘paymaster’ for Hamas and other terrorist organizations...The bank responded that it had helped the United States in “the fight against terrorism financing and money laundering” and was not accused by the plaintiffs of being “involved in the planning, financing or commission of the attacks that caused their injuries.”...

Part of the following timelines

US Supreme Court rules that foreign corporations cannot be sued for human rights abuses under the Alien Tort Statute

Arab Bank lawsuit (re terrorist attacks in Israel)