Rio Tinto v. Sarei, et al.

Case Updates

The U.S. Supreme Court granted Rio Tinto's certiorari petition, vacated the Ninth Circuit's ruling, and remanded the case back to that court in light of the Supreme Court's decision in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum.

NCLC urged the U.S. Supreme Court to agree to hear this case if the Court reverses judgment in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum, in order to clarify a host of unresolved questions regarding the scope of liability under the Alien Tort Statute (ATS). In this case, residents of a Papua New Guinea island raised ATS claims against Rio Tinto for alleged human rights violations, racial discrimination, and environmental damage. In its brief, NCLC explained that ATS litigation is imposing extremely substantial, and wholly unjustified, burdens on legitimate business conduct. Key drivers of unjustified ATS litigation include unresolved questions regarding aiding and abetting liability; the extraterritorial reach of the ATS; and the traditional requirement that non-U.S. plaintiffs exhaust remedies in the country in which the claim arises before bring suit in the U.S.