And Justice For All?

摘要

Windridge pig Farm is based in New South Wales, Australia. The headquarters of F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. is in Basel, Switzerland. So when Win-dridge and 11 other foreign companies filed a class action against Hoffmann-La Roche and more than three dozen overseas manufacturers of livestock vitamins for price-fixing in 2000, where was the case filed? In Washington, D.C. As globalism becomes a fact of life, U.S. courts fast are becoming the forum of choice for victims abroad. Product-liability suits, civil antitrust claims, and human rights cases filed by overseas plaintiffs and based on alleged misdeeds that occurred outside of the U.S. all appear to be on the rise. Mexicans and Venezuelans, for example, have filed hundreds of lawsuits in the U.S. against Bridge-stone/Firestone involving tires made, sold, and used in those countries. Although precise numbers are hard to come by, there are fears that the wave of foreign litigation could overburden American courts and expose companies to wider liability. "If anybody can sue in the U.S., it's a step in the direction of the U.S. becoming a world court," says former Federal Trade Commission Chairman Robert Pitof-sky, a member of Hoffmann-La Roche's legal team.