"The End of Apartheid Litigation and the Future of Corporate Accountability", 11 Sep 2014

The quest to hold corporations liable for alleged human rights abuses committed abroad was dealt another blow late last month when a New York District Court judge tossed the last of the apartheid-related cases pending against two American corporations...In a begrudging bow to current precedent...Judge Shira Scheindlin...denied plaintiffs’ motion to amend their complaint because they would be unable to meet the stringent demands of a test announced by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals earlier in the year...It seems, then, that all an American corporation has to do to protect itself from ATS exposure is ensure that, to the extent it engages in violations of international law in another country, it does so through a foreign subsidiary...As for Judge Scheindlin...“That these plaintiffs are left without relief in an American court is regrettable,” she wrote.  “But I am bound to follow [precedent]..."...