Human Rights Litigation

Fifth Circuit Holds that TPVA Does Not Abrogate Foreign Official Immunity

The Torture Victim Protection Act (TVPA) creates a civil cause of action for torture and extrajudicial killing done under color of foreign law. In Does 1-5 v. Obiano, the widows of five men killed by the Nigerian military during peaceful rallies for Biafran independence sued Willie Obiano, the former governor of the state where the…

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Court Allows Claims of Forced Labor to Build World Cup Stadiums

On June 26, 2025, in F.C. v. Jacobs Solutions Inc., Magistrate Judge Cyrus Y. Chung (District of Colorado) partly granted and partly denied a motion to dismiss claims against U.S. companies under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) alleging their participation in a venture that used forced labor to build stadiums in Qatar for…

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TVPRA Claims Against Neil Gaiman

Claims brought under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) don’t often make headlines. But those filed on February 3, 2025 against British author Neil Gaiman and his American wife Amanda Palmer (who are divorcing) are an exception. Scarlett Pavlovich, who worked for three weeks as a live-in nanny for the couple, alleges that Gaiman…

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First Circuit Argument Weighs Constitutionality of TVPA

Last month, the First Circuit (Judge Lara Montecalvo, presiding, with retired Justice Stephen Breyer and Senior Judge Sandra Lynch) heard oral argument in Boniface v. Viliena. Viliena, a Haitian national who has been a legal permanent resident of the United States since 2008, is challenging a $15.5 million jury award under the Torture Victim Protection…

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Business and Human Rights Litigation

On January 22-24, 2025, the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights at Mansfield College, Oxford, hosted a roundtable on business and human rights litigation. The roundtable discussed draft chapters for the Cambridge Handbook on Business and Human Rights Litigation, edited by Hassan Ahmad, Ekaterina Aristova, and Rachel Chambers, which is slated for publication next year. The…

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Cisco’s Cert Petition

Last Friday, January 31, 2025, Cisco Systems filed a petition for certiorari asking the Supreme Court to review the Ninth Circuit’s decision in Doe v. Cisco Systems, Inc. (2023), a decision holding that claims of aiding and abetting may be brought under the Alien Tort Statute (ATS) and Torture Victim Protection Act (TVPA). As more…

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Constitutionality of TVPA Challenged in First Circuit

As previously reported at TLB, a Massachusetts jury last year awarded $15.5 million in damages against Jean Morose Viliena for torture and extrajudicial killing under the Torture Victim Protection Act (TVPA). Viliena was mayor of a town in Haiti where the three plaintiffs lived. The jury found him responsible for murdering the brother of one…

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U.S. and Foreign Litigation Relating to the Events in Gaza

High profile cases against Israel and Germany have been bought before the International Court of Justice, alleging violations of international law with respect to events in Gaza following the October 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas. The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court is seeking five warrants of arrest against Israelis and Hamas leaders for war…

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Transnational Litigation at the Supreme Court, October Term 2024

Today is the first day of the Supreme Court’s October Term. This post briefly discusses four transnational litigation cases in which the Court has already granted cert, as well as several others that are in the pipeline and could be decided this Term. Readers can also consult our Supreme Court page. Cases in which the…

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Ninth Circuit Denies Rehearing in Doe v. Cisco Systems

On September 3, 2024, the Ninth Circuit denied rehearing en banc in Doe v. Cisco Systems. The panel had held that Chinese practitioners of Falun Gong could sue Cisco, a U.S. company, for aiding and abetting human rights violations by building a surveillance system for the People’s Republic of China. Judge Patrick Bumatay (joined by…

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Ingrid (Wuerth) Brunk

Vanderbilt Law School
ingrid.brunk@vanderbilt.eduEmail

William Dodge

George Washington University Law School
william.dodge@law.gwu.eduEmail

Maggie Gardner

Cornell Law School
mgardner@cornell.eduEmail

John F. Coyle

University of North Carolina School of Law
jfcoyle@email.unc.eduEmail

Robert Kry

MoloLamken LLP
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Rinat Gareev

Whitecliff Management
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León Castellanos-Jankiewicz

Institute for International and European Law
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Paul B. Stephan

University of Virginia School of Law
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Robin Effron

Brooklyn Law School
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Maryam Jamshidi

University of Colorado Law School
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Fikri Soral

Galatasaray University
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Gregg Cashmark

Vanderbilt Law School
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Hannah Buxbaum

Indiana University Maurer School of Law
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