Today, thousands of Peruvians are now participating in a "Grand National March for the Right to Water and Life." Many of the marchers are setting off from the lagoons of Cajamarca, or from the Amazonian jungle, or from the Southern Andes, marching hundreds of miles to arrive in the capital, Lima during the second week of February. The march seeks to broadly respond to a public policy in Peru of valuing a particular model of economic development over the health and wellbeing of communities adversely affected by that "development" — particularly when large resource-extraction projects threaten a community’s water supply. Read more »
A couple of weeks ago, I blogged about an Ecuadorean appeals court upholding an $18 billion dollar judgment against Chevron for massive oil pollution in the Amazon rainforest. The Court rejected Chevron’s arguments that the judgment was procured by fraud. Today, a decision by a federal appeals court in New York makes it more likely that this judgment can be enforced.
Last year, fearing that it was going to lose in Ecuador, Chevron sued the plaintiffs in New York seeking a court order that would prevent the plaintiffs from trying to enforce any Ecuadorean judgment outside of Ecuador. Since Chevron no longer does business there, the judgment could not be enforced inside Ecuador. Read more »
When an Ecuadorean appeals court in Sucumbíos upheld an $18 billion judgment against Chevron earlier this month, I happened to be passing through Lago Agrio—the famed location of the oil contamination at issue in the case. As we took the highway out of town, we followed the path of the oil-pipeline that snakes its way southwest, towards Quito. “The government does more to protect the pipeline than it does to protect drivers,” my guide informed me as we headed east. Read more »
In November 2010, Rick and I blogged about the Oklahoma constitutional amendment that would ban state courts from considering foreign law, especially Sharia (Islamic law), as well as international law. As Rick noted at the time, the amendment was very likely unconstitutional.
This week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, which has jurisdiction over Oklahoma and is generally a fairly conservative court, confirmed that the amendment is unconstitutional. The court's opinion determined that the plaintiff, a Muslim (and U.S. citizen) living in Oklahoma, was stigmatized by the amendment, and that it therefore violated the Constitution's prohibition on religious discrimination. Read more »
Ecuadorean villagers harmed by Chevron's pollution of a formerly pristine corner of the Amazon rainforest have been seeking legal redress against the company for almost two decades. Yesterday, they moved a whole lot closer to finally achieving justice, as an Ecuadorean appeals court upheld a judgement of 18 billion US dollars against Chevron.
Chevron stands accused of pollution on a truly massive scale. The victims, indigenous peoples and farmers, originally tried to challenge that pollution in Chevron's home forum, the United States, but after years of litigation, a federal court in New York accepted Chevron's argument that the case should be heard in Ecuador. So the plaintiffs filed suit in Ecuador.
And they won. Last spring, an Ecuadorean trial judge found that Chevron is liable for 18 billion US dollars in damages. Read more »
ERI filed two friend of the court briefs today in separate cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, urging the Court to find that corporations and other entities can be sued when they are responsible for violations of fundamental human rights, just as they can be for everyday injuries.
In Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co., the Court is considering whether corporations are immune from suit under the Alien Tort Statute (ATS). The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held in Kiobel that corporations cannot be sued, but four other Courts of Appeals have heard that they can. ATS litigation is perhaps the most effective remedy that victims of atrocity have in the United States against a corporation that is involved in the abuse. Read more »
In the past two weeks we at ERI have submitted amicus briefs in three cases before the Ninth Circuit and Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, weighing in on a legal doctrine known as “foreign affairs preemption.” While these briefs will likely receive less attention than the two Supreme Court amicus briefs that ERI will be submitting later this week in the Kiobel and Mohamad cases, they raise key arguments with respect to the ability to use state law claims to respond to human rights abuses occurring abroad. Read more »
Last week, ERI made a submission to the new UN Working Group on Human Rights and Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises in advance of the working group’s first session, which will take place from January 16-20 in Geneva. ERI’s submission emphasizes the need for clarity on the application of the UN Framework and Guiding Principles on business and human rights to financial institutions, including multilateral, public and private banks. Read more »
With today's announcement that the Mekong River Commission will require further study of environmental and social impacts, the governments of the Mekong region have taken an important step toward a responsible decision on the Xayaburi dam project. Read more »
In a major victory for legal protection in the Mekong region, the governments of Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam decided at today's meeting of the Mekong River Commission (MRC) that further study of dam impacts and sustainability was necessary before moving forward with dams on the lower Mekong river. The MRC is asking Japan and other MRC development partners to assist with the study.
Cambodia's representative to the MRC was clear as to the significance of this decision for the proposed Xayaburi dam in Laos: "When the four member countries agreed to conduct a further study, this meant the construction would not start until we have a clear result." Read more »
The power of law and the power of people
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ERI staff, February 2010
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