Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/17pdf/16-499_1a7d.pdf
Page Number: 19.0

Cite as:  584 U. S. ____ (2018) 

13 

Opinion of the Court 
Opinion of KENNEDY, J. 

tic law.  The dispute centers on a footnote in Sosa.  In the 
course of holding that international norms must be “suffi-
ciently definite to support a cause of action,” the Court in 
Sosa noted that a “related consideration is whether inter-
national law extends the scope of liability for a violation of 
a given norm to the perpetrator being sued, if the defend-
ant is a private actor such as a corporation or individual.” 
Id., at 732, and n. 20. 

In the Court of Appeals’ decision in Kiobel, the majority
opinion  by  Judge  Cabranes  interpreted  footnote  20  to
mean that corporate defendants may be held liable under 
the ATS only if there is a specific, universal, and obligatory
norm that corporations are liable for violations of interna-
tional  law.    621  F. 3d,  at  127.    In  Judge  Cabranes’  view,
“[i]nternational  law  is  not  silent  on  the  question  of  the 
subjects  of  international  law—that  is,  those  that,  to  vary-
ing  extents,  have  legal  status,  personality,  rights,  and 
duties  under  international  law,”  “[n]or  does  international 
law  leave  to  individual  States  the  responsibility  of  defin-
ing those subjects.”  Id., at 126 (internal quotation marks
omitted).  There  is  considerable  force  and  weight  to  the 
position  articulated  by  Judge  Cabranes.  And,  assuming
the  Court  of  Appeals  was  correct  that  under  Sosa  corpo-
rate liability is a question of international law, there is an 
equally  strong  argument  that  petitioners  cannot  satisfy 
the  high  bar  of  demonstrating  a  specific,  universal,  and 
obligatory  norm  of  liability  for  corporations.    Indeed, 
Judge Leval agreed with the conclusion that international 
law  does  “not  provide  for  any  form  of  liability  of  corpora-
tions.”  Kiobel, 621 F. 3d, at 186. 

1 
In modern times, there is no doubt, of course, that “the 
international  community  has  come  to  recognize  the  com-
mon  danger  posed  by  the  flagrant  disregard  of  basic  hu-
man rights,” leading “the nations of the world to recognize