As the U.S. Supreme Court re-examines the human rights case involving the execution of Nigerians in 1995 and the alleged complicity of a major oil corporation, legal experts are debating which way the court will take the case.
Oral arguments started this week in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum and the plaintiffs have invoked the Alien Tort Statute which allows foreigners to file suits in U.S. courts for acts done abroad.
So far the case has raised the issue of jurisdiction and even piracy and the case, which is now being heard a second time in the Supreme Court, has the justices feeling “more than a little skeptical” about it.
Host Carmen Russell-Sluchansky spoke with Baker and Hostetler’s David Rivkin, who wrote an amicus brief on behalf of KBR Inc. in support of Royal Dutch Petroleum, and Santa Clara University Law School professor David Sloss, who wrote an amicus brief on behalf of the UN High Commission for Human Rights supporting the plaintiffs, Kiobel.
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