Supreme Court Will Consider New Curbs on Human-Rights Lawsuits

The U.S. Supreme Court will consider giving companies a broader shield against lawsuits by victims of overseas atrocities, agreeing to take up a case stemming from child slavery on cocoa farms in the Ivory Coast.

Nestle SA’s U.S. unit and Cargill Inc. are urging the court to end a suit that accuses them of complicity in the use of forced child labor in the African country. The Supreme Court said Thursday it will hear both companies’ appeals of that ruling.

The case will test a centuries-old law, the 1789 Alien Tort Statute, that had become a favorite tool of ...