Piercing the Chocolate Veil: Ninth Circuit Allows Child Cocoa Slaves to Sue under the Alien Tort Statute in Doe I v. Nestle USA
![handle is hein.journals/vlrtoleg63 and id is 20 raw text is:
PIERCING THE CHOCOLATE VEIL: NINTH CIRCUIT ALLOWS CHILD
COCOA SLAVES TO SUE UNDER THE ALIEN TORT STATUTE IN DOE I
V. NESTLE USA
LINDSEY E. WILKINSON*
[H]umanitarian and practical considerations have combined to lead the na-
tions of the world to recognize that respect for fundamental human rights is in
their individual and collective interest.
I. HARVESTING ACCOUNTABILITY FOR MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS
Multinational corporations (MNCs) have become increasingly susceptible to
litigation for extraterritorial violations of international humanitarian law.2 Until
now, MNCs have generally avoided exposure to such litigation amid the uncer-
tainty of a weak, ineffective international regulatory system.3 With the Ninth
Circuit at the forefront of the debate, it appears that the United States is no longer
a safe harbor for corporate actors who aid and abet human rights violations
through their global network of contractors and suppliers.4
In a globalized marketplace, MNCs wield tremendous power and economic
influence. The transnational movement of goods and people mak[e] borders and
state controls increasingly antiquated.' MNCs utilize business tactics to max-
imize productivity and profits.6 MNCs outsource labor to countries with weak
* J.D. 2016 Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law, a staff writer on the
Villanova Law Review; B.A. 2011 Tufts University, International Relations and Economics. I
would like to thank the Editors of the Villanova Law Review, retired Villanova Professor Jo-
seph Dellapenna for his dynamic courses in comparative law and transnational litigation, and
my parents, Thomas and Kathleen '81, for their encouragement and support of justice for all.
1. Filartiga v. Pena-Irala, 630 F.2d 876, 890 (2d Cir. 1980).
2. See Kathryn Manza, Making Chocolate Sweeter: How to Encourage Hershey Com-
pany to Clean Up its Supply Chain and Eliminate Child Labor, 37 B.C. INT'L & COMP. L. REV.
389, 393 (2014) (citing KARL SCHOENBERGER, LEVI'S CHILDREN: COMING TO TERMS WITH
HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE GLOBAL MARKETPLACE 56-58 (2000)); see also Saman Zia-Zafri, Su-
ing Multinational Corporations in the U.S. for Violating International Law, 4 UCLA J. INT'L
L. & FOREIGN AFF. 81, 88 (1999) (American courts, comfortable with the legal fiction that
equates legal individuals (i.e., corporations) mutatis mutandis with natural individuals for pur-
poses of civil liability, have expressed no conceptual difficulty using the [Alien Tort Claims
Act] against private legal entities.).
3. See generally Donald Earl Childress III, Escaping Federal Law in Transnational
Cases: The Brave New World of Transnational Litigation, 93 N.C. L. REV. 995 (2015).
4. See Doe v. Nestle USA (Nestle USA), 766 F.3d 1013, 1024 (9th Cir. 2014), cert.
denied, 136 S.Ct. 798 (2016).
5. PETER ANDREAS AND ETHAN NADELMANN, POLICING THE GLOBE:
CRIMINALIZATION AND CRIME CONTROL IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS 247 (2008); see also
Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Offshore Profit Shifting and the U.S. Tax Code
Part 2 (Apple, Inc.) S. Hrg. 113-90, at 2 (2013), https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys /pkg/CHRG-
113shrg81657/pdf/CHRG-113shrg81657.pdf [https://perma.cc/4RD7-JF69] (highlighting
complex avoidance schemes used by U.S.-based multinational corporations to move profits to
offshore tax havens and amass estimated $1.9 trillion in profits).
6. See Manza, supra note 2, at 407 (describing how MNCs control their supply chains
and avoid government regulation).
(20)](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/vlrtoleg63&div=3&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
What Is HeinOnline?
Contact us for annual subscription options:
Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?
profiles profiles most