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The Court could establish jurisdiction where the contacts exist between where the action isbeing litigated and the place of incorporation of the MNC. However, by virtue of the natureof an MNC, establishing jurisdiction is problematic, given the likelihood that an MNC iscomposed of subsidiaries that are incorporated in various other states. Thus, the defendingparent company could argue forum non conveniens that parents and the subsidiaries are notsubject to the jurisdiction of the other’s home state.The common law principle of forum non conveniens is historically well established and thestandard test was set out in the House of Lords decision of Spiliada Maritime Corporationv Cansulex Ltd. 240In order to justify a stay two conditions must be satisfied, one positive and theother negative; (a) the defendant must satisfy the court that there is anotherforum to whose jurisdiction he is amenable in which justice can be done betweenthe parties at substantially less inconvenience or expense, and (b) the stay mustnot deprive the plaintiff of a legitimate personal or juridical advantage whichwould be available to him if he invoked the jurisdiction of the English court. 241For example in Doe v. Unocal, in answering the question of jurisdiction over Total S.A., theFrench oil and gas company and member of the joint venture with Unocal in Myanmar,argued forum non conveniens in favour of French jurisdiction, and the US District Courtagreed. In other words, Total S.A. was successful in convincing the Court that some otherforum was more convenient in the sense that it was more suitable or appropriate for theends of justice.The decision of the District Court was made despite Total’s subsidiary holding companiesin California, or Total’s subsidiary holding companies in the US with substantial Californiacontacts. Therefore, to be effective, domestic regulation must recognise the ‘reality ofeconomic interdependence’ or MNCs will continue to avoid regulation in domestic legalsystems.As stated in Spiliada, forum non conveniens is premised on two overarching themes: One,determining the more appropriate forum; and two, the most likely forum that would yielda just result. However, arguably, the principle affords the courts a considerable amount ofdiscretion in the application that by no means is predictable. Rather, some test cases haveresulted in some puzzling conclusions.For example, Jota et al. and Aguinda et. al. v. Texaco, was a consolidated appeal of twodismissed class actions filed against Texaco under the ATCA for the negligent operation58|Private Sector Accountability in Combating the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children