20110205
reuters

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court refused to reconsider a lawsuit that accused Royal Dutch Shell Plc of helping Nigerian authorities violently suppress protests against oil exploration in the 1990s.

In a divided vote that prompted a bitter debate among some of its judges, the court left intact what some legal experts call a landmark ruling in September that companies cannot be liable in U.S. courts for violations of international human rights law.

The plaintiffs, families of seven Nigerians who were executed by a former military government for protesting Shell's exploration and development, had sought to recover from the oil giant under a 1789 U.S. law known as the Alien Tort Statute.

That law recently has gained favor among plaintiffs as a way to sue companies in U.S. courts for acts committed abroad.

The full 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York declined to hear the case by a 5-5 vote. The tie leaves intact the original 2-1 panel ruling from September. Separately, the judges in that panel voted 2-1 not to rehear the case.

But this may not be the end of the lawsuit.

"The 2nd Circuit is alone among federal circuit courts in concluding that corporations cannot be responsible under U.S. law for human rights violations," said Ralph Steinhardt, an international law professor at George Washington University.

"This clears the way for the plaintiffs to seek review at the Supreme Court," he added.