International Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words - 1

International Law - Essay Example Due to the increase in these multinational corporation cases, American courts employed the doctrine of forum non conveniens, as a shield to limit the increasing use of the American legal system by foreign plaintiffs. The argument behind all this is that the foreign victims tend to take advantage of the procedural and substantive law.2 As a result of global development and globalization of most business activities, the multinational corporations are discussed at an international platform. The globalization of these corporations as well as economic institutions in the world brings wider media coverage that even the very small accidents can be viewed by millions in the world. This keeps the whole world alert about the multinational corporations, which are best known to violate human rights. ... The reasons for the inclusion of the Alien Tort Statue in this Act were not very clear, but however its enactment was originally for the use against pirates, and to prevent the mistreatment of foreign ambassadors, but it was left inactive and forgotten until 1980 when it was rediscovered and put into use by lawyers.5 The Alien Tort Statute was first used in solving the Filartiga V. case. The plaintiffs were a Paraguayan father and daughter who brought a complaint with the help of human rights activists. They alleged that the defendant a former Paraguay police officer had tortured their brother and son to death. They won the case and were rewarded a significant monetary amount.6 Since the enactment of the Alien Tort Statue, a significant number of cases have been brought forth concerning human rights abuses committed abroad including claims against American corporations. The Alien Tort Statute has really helped to solve many cases. This statute has made it possible and easier for fore igners to bring civil cases in the United States district level courts, for crimes committed anywhere in the world by an individual, government, and corporations that violates the law of nations or treaty of the United States.7 The Alien Tort Statue also gained importance in kadic V, Karadizic. Karadizic expanded the capacity of human rights claims under Alien Tort Statute to cover private non-state actors who violated human rights. This means that, it was directly applied against corporate defendants and this indicated that American courts were, and are willing to consider claims based on violations of international human law against Multinational Corporations.8