Federal Jurisdiction Over Claims of Corporate Liability Under International Law

[Editor’s Note: This month, faculty members have been posting on upcoming judicial decisions of particular interest. This is the third post in the series.]

The Alien Tort Statute (“ATS”) creates federal jurisdiction over “any civil action by an alien for a tort only, committed in violation of the law of nations or a treaty of the United States.” Although enacted as part of the original Judiciary Act of 1789, the ATS has only recently become a subject of significant litigation and academic debate. The first published appellate opinion to interpret the statute came in 1980 in Filartiga v. Pena-Irala, with the Second Circuit holding that the ATS provides federal jurisdiction where an alien files a claim alleging official torture in violation of the “law of nations”—commonly known today as “customary international law.”

Since Filartiga, federal appellate courts have issued several dozen published opinions on the ATS. Many of these have elaborated on the types of tort claims for which the ATS provides jurisdiction. Courts have held, for example, that jurisdiction is present for claims of tortious conduct violating customary international prohibitions on extrajudicial killing, genocide, crimes against humanity, and medical experiments on unknowing human subjects. Courts have also held that the ATS does not provide jurisdiction over claims of international environmental harms, cultural genocide, breach of fiduciary duty, and child labor. The task of ascertaining whether the ATS encompasses any given tort can be a difficult one, for it hinges upon often-murky indicia of international state practice. In Sosa v. Alvarez-Machain, the Supreme Court’s only opinion on the ATS, the Court held that jurisdiction is present only where a claim based on customary international law invokes an international norm that is both “accepted by the civilized world” and defined with a fairly high degree of specificity.

Continue ReadingFederal Jurisdiction Over Claims of Corporate Liability Under International Law

How the NBA Should Have Handled the Recent Labor Dispute

Most fans of professional basketball were probably delighted to learn of the recent agreement between the NBA owners and their players which will make possible a 66-game regular season beginning on Christmas Day.

However, for fans of sports law (like myself), the resolution was disappointing.  Had the players’ antitrust suit gone to trial, followed by the inevitable sequence of appeals, we might finally have received conclusive answers to some of the most perplexing questions in the field of sports law.

For example, we might have learned if the “decertify/recertify the union for negotiation leverage” strategy is really a permissible alternative under U. S. labor law, and we might have found out what sorts of owner-imposed restraints could survive “rule of reason” scrutiny under the antitrust laws.  Alas, we will simply continue to argue about the proper answers to such questions until the next major disruption of the professional sports labor-management front raises a new possibility of judicial resolution.

If I had been running the NBA, I would have responded to the NBAPA’s decertification and subsequent antitrust lawsuit by declaring the lockout over and immediately opening the training camps to the now non-unionized players.  I would have then have imposed mandatory drug testing rules and an absolutely rigid, exception-free salary cap.

The cap would apply to all forms of player compensation including the costs of signing new players out of the amateur ranks.   I am confident that both a reasonable drug testing regime and a fixed ceiling on salaries would be upheld under the antitrust laws as reasonable restraints on trade necessary to maintain competitive balance.

I would not have reinstituted the player draft or any restrictions on the signing of free agents — those matters would be adequately dealt with by the salary cap and do little to assure competitive balance.

Of course, for this to work, the NBA owners would all have to be on the same page, which is unlikely. Moreover, such an approach would almost certainly have led to a reformation of the union which would likely then go on strike.  But at that point the sports law carousel would be turning again.

Continue ReadingHow the NBA Should Have Handled the Recent Labor Dispute

A.B.A. Rejections of Obama Judicial Nominees

Speaking through its judicial vetting committee, the A.B.A. has rejected fourteen of President Obama’s potential nominees for the federal bench. The overall rejection rate was 7.5 percent, a rate three and a half times that for the eight-year administrations of both President George W. Bush and President Bill Clinton.

Why has the A.B.A. been less enthusiastic about the Obama judicial nominees? One simple theory is that the organization is more conservative than many think. It used to be assumed the A.B.A. had a liberal bias, but the rejected nominees are Obama-style liberals.

Another theory involves the experiences and career paths of the nominees. Most were government lawyers and academics, but the A.B.A. apparently wants significant trial experience. The A.B.A., like the general public, may think that “true” lawyers are litigators.

The most troubling theory for the high rejection rate is that the A.B.A. continues to imagine a white, male federal judiciary. Eight of the fourteen rejections are African American or Hispanic, and nine are women.

President Obama could still seek Senate confirmation for his nominees, but regardless of what he decides on that score, the rejections provide new perspectives on the A.B.A. The emerging image is hardly attractive.

 

Continue ReadingA.B.A. Rejections of Obama Judicial Nominees