The Federal Appeals Court in Washington D.C. recently held that Exxon is not immune from liability for brutality allegedly caused by agents of their company against a group of Indonesian villagers. Great, ballsy decision and you know what ? The correct one! The decision flies in the face of an earlier ruling by the Federal Court of Appeals for The Second Circuit(New York) in another Alien Tort Act case .
D.C. Circuit Judge Judith Rogers wrote in the majority opinion," The law of the United States has been uniform since its founding that corporations can be held liable for the torts committed by their agents....This is confirmed in international practice, both in treaties and in legal systems throughout the world....It would create a bizarre anomaly to immunize corporations from liability for the conduct of their agents in lawsuits for shockingly egregious violations of universally recognized principles of human rights " Well said Judge Rogers .
Why condone a behavior in a "third world country" that would inevitably bring about a criminal prosecution here ?
Oh , and Second Circuit Court of Appeals, "Man Up " ! Your protection of big multi-national corporations is shameful!
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