Twenty years -- almost to the day. Last weekend marked the anniversary of meetings between officials from oil giant Shell that led to alleged human rights abuses at issue in a landmark Supreme Court case known as Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum. The Court, considered by many to be the...

On Monday, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in one of the biggest human rights cases to reach the court in years. I was inside the courtroom, and had the privilege of hearing my friend and colleague, Paul Hoffman, brilliantly defend the Alien Tort Statute, which for thirty years has...

In case you hadn't heard, today is International Talk Like A Pirate Day.  Don't worry if you're feeling out of the loop; I didn't know this day existed until recently. From what I have learned, the day is all in good fun, celebrating pirate culture and Johnny Depp movies, which is why...

This week, a group of Somalians subjected to torture and other human rights abuses by the Somalian regime received a measure of justice before a U.S. federal district court. This year, will the U.S. Supreme Court allow such cases to continue?

In the historic case decided Tuesday,

Over the past few weeks, like millions across the globe, I frequently found myself glued to the television, captivated by the Olympic Games in London. The athletic feats -- and of course, the inspirational stories of the athletes -- kept me watching night after night. The media loves a good...

What does Royal Dutch Shell have in common with General Ratko Mladic, former commander of the Bosnian Serb army? More than you'd think...

First off, they've both appeared in the Hague in the past week. Shell was there Tuesday for its Annual General Meeting with shareholders, and Mladic just...

It looks like the Supreme Court may not decide the corporate liability issue this year after all. An order just came out asking both sides to submit a new round of briefing on extraterritoriality -- the question of whether and when the Alien Tort Statute (ATS) covers violations of international...

On Feb. 28, I watched the Supreme Court hearing in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum, which will decide whether corporations can be sued under the Alien Tort Statute (ATS), a law that allows suits in federal courts for violations of international law. After reading some of...

If corporations have rights then surely they have responsibilities too. Yet in a case before the Supreme Court Feb. 28, lawyers for petroleum giant Shell will argue that corporations are immune from laws that prohibit complicity in human rights violations and crimes against humanity. As a human rights lawyer who...