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/--------- E-mail Sponsored by Fox Searchlight ------------\ SIDEWAYS - NOW PLAYING IN SELECT CITIES An official selection of the New York Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival, SIDEWAYS is the new comedy from Alexander Payne, director of ELECTION and ABOUT SCHMIDT. Starring Paul Giamatti, Thomas Haden Church, Sandra Oh and Virginia Madsen. Watch the trailer at: http://www.foxsearchlight.com/sideways/index_nyt.html \----------------------------------------------------------/ Judge Dismisses Big Rights Suit on Apartheid November 30, 2004 By JULIA PRESTON A federal judge in New York dismissed a human rights suit yesterday against 35 major corporations that did business in South Africa under apartheid, dealing a blow to rights lawyers who have sought to use an 18th-century law to punish international companies that operated under abusive systems. The ruling, by Judge John E. Sprizzo of Federal District Court in Manhattan, came in response to suits originally brought in 2002 by three separate groups of plaintiffs in eight different federal courts across the country. They argued that the corporations, most of which are American, violated international law by actively helping to support the apartheid system. They tried to sue the corporations - Citigroup, General Electric, E.I. DuPont de Nemours, I.B.M., General Motors, Shell Oil and ExxonMobil, among others - under the Alien Tort Claims Act, which was passed in 1789 to protect American ships from pirates and American diplomats from attack when they were overseas. During the past two decades, some federal courts in the United States have agreed that they have jurisdiction in human rights suits under the act when the allegations involved egregious violations of international law like torture or genocide by foreign governments or their leaders. But Judge Sprizzo found that his court did not have jurisdiction under the act. "In a world where many countries may fall considerably short of ideal economic, political and social conditions, this court must be extremely cautious in permitting suits here based upon a corporation's doing business in countries with less than stellar human rights records," Judge Sprizzo wrote, warning that such suits could have "significant, if not disastrous, effects on international commerce." But Judge Sprizzo said he was adhering to a ruling by the Supreme Court in March, which determined that the alien tort act could be applied only in a narrow set of international law violations not too different from the ones named by the 18th century lawmakers who wrote it. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/30/international/africa/30apartheid.html?ex=1103025625&ei=1&en=42d239298b687b5d --------------------------------- Get Home Delivery of The New York Times Newspaper. Imagine reading The New York Times any time & anywhere you like! Leisurely catch up on events & expand your horizons. Enjoy now for 50% off Home Delivery! Click here: http://homedelivery.nytimes.com/HDS/SubscriptionT1.do?mode=SubscriptionT1&ExternalMediaCode=W24AF HOW TO ADVERTISE --------------------------------- For information on advertising in e-mail newsletters or other creative advertising opportunities with The New York Times on the Web, please contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] or visit our online media kit at http://www.nytimes.com/adinfo For general information about NYTimes.com, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company _______________________________________________ Ugandanet mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/
