Throughout the early 1990s, Royal Dutch Petroleum, a Dutch company, and Shell, a British company, were engaged in oil exploration and production in Nigeria. When local residents protested the oil companies’ practices, the firms allegedly paid the Nigerian Government to suppress the protests by beating, raping, killing, and arresting locals. 

A group of Nigerian victims of these attacks sued the oil companies in U.S. federal court for violations of customary international law under the Alien Tort Statute (ATS), a statute passed by the first Congress in 1789. The ATS allows U.S. district courts to hear certain lawsuits brought by non-U.S. citizens for violations of international law occurring in the United States or on the high seas, outside the sovereignty of any country. According to the plaintiffs, the oil companies violated customary international law and jus cogens by helping the Nigerian Government commit many crimes against humanity. 

The appeals court dismissed the case. The Supreme Court granted certiorari on the question of whether the ATS permitted U.S. courts to hear a suit for violations of customary international law that occurred outside the U.S.

Questions:

1. Does U.S. law extend to violations of customary international law occurring entirely outside the United States?

2. What is extraterritoriality?

3. What does the Court typically apply to discern whether an Act of Congress regulating conduct applies abroad?

4. What does the presumption of extraterritoriality guard against?