On October 12, a 147-page decision, with two separate opinions and one dissenting opinion, reinstated a 2002 lawsuit filed in the United States by South African victims against 50-some multinational corporations accused of having aided and abetted the South African apartheid regime. The lower court had originally dismissed the lawsuit in 2004. The corporations—including General Motors, IBM, Shell Oil, ExxonMobil, General Electric, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank AG and others—are being sued based on the Alien Tort Statute, a 1789 law originally intended to protect American ships and diplomats from attacks outside US territory. According to a collective press release by the Jubilee South Africa plaintiffs, negotiations over reparations were first proposed in 1999, but the companies rejected them. In his dissent, Judge Korman emphasized that the decision to reinstate the lawsuit was made "over the vigorous objections of the United States, its allies, and, most notably, the Republic of South Africa, which is justifiably proud of the ability of its legal system to adjudicate legitimate human rights claims," reports Reuters.