ABSTRACT
Multinationals operating in conjunction with governments in developing countries have on too many occasions caused massive degradation to the environments upon which local people depend for subsistence. This chapter gives a brief overview of one strategy that victims have begun to use to seek redress for such abuses—litigation in US courts against the responsible multinationals. Numerous foreign victims have successfully sued human rights abusers in United States courts under the Alien Tort Claims Act since the Second Circuit's landmark decision in Filartiga v. Pena-Irala twenty years ago. The possibility of such suits introduces a new calculus into the economics of projects conducted in partnership with known human rights abusers. The ATCA also holds promise to provide redress for victims of massive environmental damage. Substantial authority from international human rights, humanitarian and environmental law supports the proposition that at least some particularly egregious environmental abuses that undermine or destroy people's health, livelihoods or lives violate customary international law.
