Castan Centre for Human Rights Law

Author: Joanna Kyriakakis

  • Shell Has No Case to Answer on Nigeria

    Joanna Kyriakakis On Thursday last week, the United States Supreme Court delivered a judgment that rewrites the rules on international human rights litigations. In Kiobel v Royal Dutch Petroleum the Court decided that an idiosyncratic US law dating from 1789, the Alien Tort Statute (ATS), does not apply to events that occur in the territories…

  • Torture Inc: how far do corporate interests stretch when human rights are at stake?

    By Joanna Kyriakakis Imagine the following hypothetical. An Iranian company secretly supplies poison gas to the current Syrian regime in order to kill tens of thousands of Kurdish citizens. And imagine that some of the victims of the resulting gas attacks escape and seek asylum in the United States. Imagine also that the Iranian company…

  • Lessons from the Chamberlain case: the human cost of wrongful conviction

    By Joanna Kyriakakis The Azaria Chamberlain case is a reminder that the criminal justice system does get it wrong, with each error bearing its own human cost. Last week, the Northern Territory Coroner’s office concluded an inquest into the cause of death of baby Azaria Chamberlain near Uluru on the night of 17 August 1980.…

  • Pirates Incorporated: The US Supreme Court to decide if corporations are liable under the Alien Tort Statute

    By Joanna Kyriakakis Last Tuesday the US Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case of Kiobel v Royal Dutch Petroleum. The case is significant as it will determine whether the Alien Tort Statute (ATS) applies to corporations. Dating from 1789, the ATS is a unique and controversial US law that allows non-US citizens to…

  • Mining, Security and Human Rights

    By Joanna Kyriakakis Earlier this year I wrote a piece about the potential for Australian laws to regulate and oversee the human rights impacts of Australian mining companies operating abroad. Anvil Mining and Oceana Gold were two examples I gave where Australian mining interests had come under the spotlight for alleged human rights abuses connected…

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