Article
Bananas, the Colombian Civil War and the U.S. Supreme Court
Last week, a group of Colombian plaintiffs asked the U.S. Supreme Court to revive their lawsuit against banana giant Chiquita. This case presents an opportunity for the Supreme Court to clarify its 2013 decision in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Shell and give much needed guidance to plaintiffs and businesses regarding when a corporation may be liable under U.S. law for human rights abuses committed abroad...In reversing the district court and tossing plaintiffs’ complaint against Chiquita, the 11th Circuit adopted a particularly extreme view of Kiobel and the (limited) scope of the [Alien Tort Statute], stating simply: “The ATS does not apply extraterritorially.”