An Exception to Jesner: Preventing U.S. Corporations and Their Subsidiaries from Avoiding Liability for Harms Caused Abroad

Authors

Luke D. Anderson

Abstract

After the Supreme Court’s rulings in Jesner and Kiobel, the Alien Tort Statute includes a “presumption against extraterritorial application,” and no suits may be brought against foreign corporate defendants. These barriers limit the ability of victims of human rights violations to find justice. The courts or Congress should create an exception to the Alien Tort Statute for foreign corporate subsidiaries of domestic corporations. This exception will help improve American soft power and will hold human rights violators liable for their crimes. This Comment examines the policies of countries like France, England, Canada, and the Netherlands. The exception proposed by this Comment differs from the policies in these countries because it only asks the U.S. to create an exception for foreign corporations owned by American companies. The U.S. should not protect its corporations and grant them immunity when their subsidiaries engage in egregious human rights violations.

Recommended Citation

Luke D. Anderson, An Exception to Jesner: Preventing U.S. Corporations and Their Subsidiaries from Avoiding Liability for Harms Caused Abroad, 34 Emory Int'l L. Rev. 997 (2020).
Available at: https://scholarlycommons.law.emory.edu/eilr/vol34/iss4/3