Corporate Liability, Extraterritorial Jurisdiction and the Future of the Alien Tort Claims Act: Some Remarks after Kiobel

On April 2013 the US Supreme Court has handed down its opinion on the writ of certiorari in the Kiobel v. Shell case and has put an end to a longlasting judicial controversy with a decision that is destined to play a crucial role as to the actionability of the principle of corporate responsibility for human rights violation under Alien Tort Claim Act (ATCA). The essay starts by reviewing the evolution of ATCA in US legal system and those landmark decisions adopted by U.S. courts opening the 'modern line' of ATCA litigations. Then the main findings of the 2010 decision of the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and of the recent Supreme Court's opinion, are reviewed. The paper focalizes in particular the two major issues emerged during Kiobel saga: the supposed inadmissibility of any extraterritorial reach in ATCA foreign-cubed cases, and the supposed inadmissibility of the principle of corporate liability for violation of human rights within contemporary international human rights law.