The U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way Monday for multibillion-dollar lawsuits against multinational corporations that allegedly did business in South Africa before the end of the racist apartheid system in 1994.

The suits, filed on behalf of all victims of apartheid, are seeking damages in excess of $400 billion US and are against some of the household names of the business world, including Ford, General Motors, Deutsche Bank, Exxon Mobil, Colgate Palmolive and IBM.

In all, more than 50 companies are named.

Four of the nine Supreme Court justices recused themselves from hearing details of the case because they or members of their families held stock in the companies involved. The Supreme Court said it couldn't intervene in the case because at least six judges are required to hear any case.

The move effectively upheld a lower court decision that rejected challenges to the suits by the corporations themselves, the U.S. government and South Africa's current multi-racial administration, which sees the suits as a violation of its sovereignty.

Lawyers for the South African citizens who launched the lawsuits said it was premature for the Supreme Court to get involved. The lawyers said they plan to narrow their complaint, perhaps omitting some corporations and showing more clearly how the companies assisted the apartheid government.

There are three separate lawsuits, brought on behalf of all people who lived in South Africa between 1948, when apartheid was introduced, and 1994 when multi-racial elections swept Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress to power.

The case involves an 18th-century law known as the Alien Tort Claims Act that allows foreigners to sue in U.S. courts over international law violations, even if neither party has any connection to the United States.

The law was originally intended to allow foreign nationals to make claims against pirates under the U.S. legal system, but it has recently been invoked most often to sue corporations for their alleged involvement in human rights abuses overseas.

with files from the Associated Press