On December 8, 2015, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld the District Court’s dismissal of claims by plaintiffs against Arab Bank, a corporation, under the Alien Tort Statute (the “ATS”) 28.U.S.C §1350 on the grounds that ATS claims may not be brought against corporations. The basis for the court’s decision in In re Arab Bank, PLC Alien Tort Statute Litigation, (“The Arab Bank Case”) (2d Cir. December 8, 2015) was an earlier decision, Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co., 621 F.3d 111 (2d to Cir, 2010), commonly referred to as “Kiobel I.”

In one sense the decision in the Arab Bank Case was simply a holding by one three-judge panel on the Second Circuit that it was bound by an earlier decision, Kiobel I, by another three-judge panel. But the case is far more than that. In Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co, 133 S. Ct. 1659 (2013) (Kiobel II), the Supreme Court affirmed Kiobel I, but on other grounds.