More interesting decisions on the Alien Torts Statute

About a month and a half ago, I reported on a decision by the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit holding for the first time that plaintiffs could not bring claims against corporations under the Alien Tort Statute. This view departs from decades of case law under the ATS. (See here and here.) Now comes news that in a dissenting opinion from an order by the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit a federal judge is suggesting yet another radical departure from accepted doctrine. The Court's order (available here) was surprising too, but for a different reason. Nearly a decade into the litigation of a class action filed on behalf of some 10,000 people who say they suffered from violence, threats of violence and pollution from Rio Tinto's copper mining in Bougainville, Papua New Guinea, the Court has decided to refer the case to a judge to explore the possibility of mediation. In dissent, Judge Kleinfeld argues that the case should not be referred to mediation because he does not think the court has jurisdiction over the case to begin with, stating that "We have not yet decided whether we have jurisdiction over this dispute. I very much doubt that we do. I suspect that we lack jurisdiction both because the case involves a political question and because we lack subject matter jurisdiction on account of extraterritoriality. This case is entirely extraterritorial. The claims are by Papua New Guineans against a British-Australian company for wrongs committed in Papua New Guinea. Although Rio Tinto has operations in many countries, including the United States, and Sarei lived in the United States as a resident alien when the complaint was filed, nothing done by Americans or in America, is at issue." This is a remarkable statement. The notion that the court may not have jurisdiction because the case involves a political question is correct, but the suggestion that the court may not have jurisdiction because the claim is filed by an alien and relates to conduct outside the US departs from the current interpretation given to the statute by the Supreme Court. The ATS exists precisely to provide jurisdiction to aliens to recover for injuries committed outside the US. Most, if not all, the cases decided by the Supreme Court and other federal courts under the ATS involve claims in that context. If the court were to follow the judge's suggestion and hold the court does not have jurisdiction, it would be using a radical interpretation of the statute not based on any previous ATS case. Go here for more on the story. Go here for all my comments on recent developments related to the Alien Tort Statute.