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2014 Castan Human Rights Report: Corporations now less accountable
By Joanna Kyriakakis The Bangladesh Rana Plaza disaster in 2013 was a stark reminder of the human costs of a poorly regulated global economy. A supplier of major retailers like Benetton, Walmart and Coles, the garment factory collapsed as a result of poor construction and little safety regulation. 1,129 people died, making it the worst…
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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…
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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…
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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…
Castan Centre for Human Rights Law 
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