On Wednesday, 17 April 2013, the US Supreme Court ruled that the Nigerian plaintiffs who had claimed that the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company had been complicit in violating their human rights, may not continue their litigation in US courts using the Alien Tort Statute, the 1789 statute enacted to deal with violations committed by pirates on the high seas.
The decision is a major blow for the plaintiffs in the Kiobel case.
Its impact on the South Africa Apartheid Litigation which has been pending before the Second Circuit Court since January 2010, awaiting the Supreme Court’s decision in Kiobel, is not yet clear.