A week from today, on October 1, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear a second round of arguments in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum, a case concerning Shell Oil’s alleged complicity in the torture and killing of environmentalists in Nigeria. The Center for Justice and Accountability…has filed two amicus briefs on behalf of the petitioners…In today's post, I first recall the path by which Kiobel became a case about extraterritoriality, and then discuss how an adverse ruling on that question could foreclose valuable assistance to survivors of human rights abuses…If the Supreme Court accepts Shell’s arguments, federal law will no longer recognize a civil remedy for foreign abuses like genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, or slavery…For many survivors, the [Alien Tort Statute] offers the only avenue to seek redress and hear a court of law condemn a crime under its true name: genocide or crimes against humanity.