George Bush's government is trying to persuade the US supreme court to strike down the most progressive and pro-human rights law on the American statute books - a law which allows multinational corporations to be held accountable in the US courts for human rights abuses abroad. US Attorney general John Ashcroft's justice department is attacking a statute dating back more than 200 years which lawyers have revived in recent years to bring human rights claims, first against foreign torturers but now against huge companies over their operations in repressive states.