Keywords: Human Rights; Corporate Responsibility; Jurisdiction; Extraterritoriality; "Kiobel" Case; ATCA.
On April 2013 the US Supreme Court has handed down its opinion on the writ of "certiorari" in the
"Kiobel v. Shell" case and has put an end to a longlasting judicial controversy with a decision that is
destined to play a crucial role as to the actionability of the principle of corporate responsibility for
human rights violation under Alien Tort Claim Act (ATCA). The essay starts by reviewing the evolution
of ATCA in US legal system and those landmark decisions adopted by U.S. courts opening
the 'modern line' of ATCA litigations. Then the main findings of the 2010 decision of the Court of
Appeals for the Second Circuit and of the recent Supreme Court's opinion, are reviewed. The paper
focalizes in particular the two major issues emerged during "Kiobel" saga: the supposed inadmissibility
of any extraterritorial reach in ATCA foreign-cubed cases, and the supposed inadmissibility
of the principle of corporate liability for violation of human rights within contemporary international
human rights law.