The UO School of Law and law schools around the country are partnering with the International Corporate Accountability Roundtable (ICAR) and EarthRights International on a project to research state laws and propose recommendations for legal reform around corporate accountability.

"As soon as we heard about the ICAR project, we realized how important it was," said Michelle McKinley, who is supervising the Oregon Law portion of the project with Michael Fakhri. "It also provides students with a hands-on opportunity to apply what they learn in the classroom to critical issues in transnational litigation."

The nationwide project was, in part, created in response to the Supreme Court decision in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum. The court concluded that human rights cases can only be brought in federal court under the alien tort statute so long as the actions concerned the U.S. Though this moved some cases, the court left an insufficient explanation of what this test means or how it should be applied.

Together with the participating law schools, ICAR and EarthRights International will provide research support for human rights cases at the state level. Students will also examine their state laws and propose recommendations of how those laws can be improved to better protect human rights victims.

- from the UO School of Law