By Dan Weissman ( December 5, 2017, 6:56 PM EST) -- In October 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case with an unusual defendant: a foreign corporation. Specifically, Jordan-based Arab Bank, which is accused of financing militant attacks in Israel and the Palestinian territories. The lead plaintiff in Jesner v. Arab Bank PLC is a British citizen whose teenage son was killed in a suicide bombing of a bus in Tel Aviv. The case was brought under the Alien Tort Statute, a 1789 law that gives U.S. courts the right to hear civil lawsuits filed by non-American citizens for violations of international laws. The central question before the justices is whether ATS prohibits corporate liability....