Doe v. Unocal
April 30, 2005 9:27 AM Subscribe
A Big Win for Human Rights. A settlement was reached in the case of Doe v. Unocal (previously discussed here), just in time for Unocal to be acquired by CevronTexaco.
... Unocal had agreed to pay to settle a long-running lawsuit charging the oil company with assisting and encouraging the torture, murder and rape of Burmese villagers by government soldiers so that Unocal could build a gas pipeline. ... A series of federal court rulings in California established that a corporation that assists or encourages human rights violations by a foreign government, in this case the Burmese military, can be held legally responsible in a US court.
That's excellent, but i'm the administration'll pass a law to kill it under their "tort reform" bullshit.
posted by amberglow at 10:29 AM on April 30, 2005
That's excellent, but i'm the administration'll pass a law to kill it under their "tort reform" bullshit.
posted by amberglow at 10:29 AM on April 30, 2005
wow - good news.
Of course, our current regime did what they could to prevent this:
"For years, business groups lobbied hard for repeal of the Alien Tort Claims Act, the law that allowed the suit. The Bush Administration has also taken an unusually strong stand against these cases, intervening several times to ask courts to dismiss them. In the Unocal case Attorney General John Ashcroft filed a brief to the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit denouncing the villagers' attempt to sue under the alien tort law and, in a sweeping argument that surprised even corporate advocates, argued that every court that had allowed these claims in the past twenty years had been wrong. The court rejected his arguments. "
posted by madamjujujive at 11:56 AM on April 30, 2005
Of course, our current regime did what they could to prevent this:
"For years, business groups lobbied hard for repeal of the Alien Tort Claims Act, the law that allowed the suit. The Bush Administration has also taken an unusually strong stand against these cases, intervening several times to ask courts to dismiss them. In the Unocal case Attorney General John Ashcroft filed a brief to the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit denouncing the villagers' attempt to sue under the alien tort law and, in a sweeping argument that surprised even corporate advocates, argued that every court that had allowed these claims in the past twenty years had been wrong. The court rejected his arguments. "
posted by madamjujujive at 11:56 AM on April 30, 2005
but i'm sure the administration'll pass a law to kill it under their "tort reform" bullshit.
They can't: the Supreme Court recently affirmed the ATCA.
posted by homunculus at 1:47 PM on April 30, 2005
They can't: the Supreme Court recently affirmed the ATCA.
posted by homunculus at 1:47 PM on April 30, 2005
cool--gives me hope that the courts haven't been entirely packed with solely pro-corporate judges.
posted by amberglow at 2:57 PM on April 30, 2005
posted by amberglow at 2:57 PM on April 30, 2005
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posted by homunculus at 9:29 AM on April 30, 2005