New Supreme Court Ruling on the Alien Tort Statute

For those interested in federal courts or U.S. foreign relations law, the Supreme Court just issued an important decision in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co. The basic issue concerned the extent to which the Alien Tort Statute (“ATS”) confers jurisdiction upon district courts to recognize a federal cause of action for violations of customary international law. Here’s what happened: Nigerian nationals sued Royal Dutch Petroleum in federal court for aiding and abetting atrocities allegedly committed by the Nigerian military in the early 1990s, when the plaintiffs and many others were protesting the environmental effects of the oil company’s operations in the Niger River Delta. The district court dismissed some of the claims on the ground that the alleged conduct did not violate international law. On appeal, the Second Circuit dismissed the entire complaint on the view that the ATS does not recognize corporate liability. Many thought that the Supreme Court would affirm on similar reasoning, but the Court mostly sidestepped the issue of corporate liability to focus instead on whether the ATS confers jurisdiction over claims alleging violations of international law when the unlawful acts occurred within the territory of a foreign sovereign.

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Metro Milwaukee Is Doing Better Than a Lot of Residents Think

A couple of years ago, I was talking with one of the boosters of the effort to brand the Milwaukee area as a global water technology hub. He told me the biggest challenge the initiative would face would be Milwaukee’s inferiority complex, or at least our unwillingness to brag about our assets.

I was reminded of that conversation recently, when the Law School collaborated with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on two major projects. On April 8, we hosted a conference in Eckstein Hall exploring the pros and cons of building a new downtown sports and entertainment facility. Those in attendance heard the president of the Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce describe how his city had been dramatically transformed by a series of projects that had broad community support. Then, this past Sunday, the newspaper published the first in a four-part series examining the economic future of metropolitan Milwaukee. Called “A Time to Build,” the series was reported by Rick Romell of the Journal Sentinel, under a six-month Law School fellowship established by the Sheldon B. Lubar Fund for Public Policy Research.

As part of that current series on the metro area’s economic prospects, the newspaper created an interactive graphic that allows the reader to compare the nation’s top 50 metropolitan areas. It’s easy to use, and educational, too.

After hearing so much about the Oklahoma City success story, I thought it might be interesting to see how metro Milwaukee stacks up against Oklahoma City in several key categories. It turns out, we do pretty well. We have more college graduates, higher per capita income, and a slightly lower poverty rate. I then added the metropolitan Dallas area to the mix, given Dallas’ reputation as one of the stars of the Sunbelt. Again, the comparison was favorable. Milwaukee and Dallas had remarkably similar numbers in several key indices. The comparative data are available here.

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Israel Reflections 2013–It’s Still Complicated

As we wrote about the last Israel trip, noting the complications and contradictions of the country are crucial to also understanding it.  On the 65th anniversary of Israeli independence, this blog post from student Kristina Minor discusses the importance and implications of Zionism:

Israel is by far the most complicated place I have ever been.  There is no way to fully understand what is going on in the area without walking the streets and speaking to the people.  What hit me most about the trip was seeing the beauty and passion for life and harmony that has emerged as a result of hundreds of years of conflict and pain.

The very foundations of the Israeli are based on a painful Jewish history and promises waiting to be fulfilled. 

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