Personal Injury Law

1789 Law and Nuremburg Code Intersect to Permit Claims To Proceed Against Pfizer For Conducting Medical Experimentation Without Consent

The Alien Tort Statute, 28 U.S.C. §1350, a 1789 law, gives foreigners the right to raise tort claims in federal court to vindicate violations of ‘the laws of nations.’  The 10-principle Nuremberg Code was formulated as part of a war crimes trial conducted after World War II in which 15 doctors were convicted of crimes against humanity for conducting unconsented experiments.  Seven of the doctors were sentenced to death.  The 1789 law and the 20th Century Nuremberg Code intertwined recently as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit revived Nigerian families’ damage claims for billions of dollars against Pfizer for allegedly secretly testing a new drug in a Nigerian hospital during a 1996 meningitis outbreak.

Full post as published by Legal Blog on February 23, 2009 (boomark / email).