A certified English translation of the Lago Agrio Ecuador Appeals Court judgment, together with the original Spanish, was filed with the Second Circuit today and is available here. ...
I think there is little doubt where I stand on the merits of the Chevron litigation, so I am not going to get into the substance of the dispute here. But I have an honest question that I am hoping someone will answer. Let's assume, for sake of argument, that Chevron is correct to argue that the $18 billion judgment...
As Kevin noted yesterday, on January 3, 2012 an Ecuador Appeals Court affirmed the $18 billion judgment against Chevron in the long-running battle over environmental damage. (Available in English and the original Spanish here). According to an unofficial English translation of the sixteen page opinion, the Court dismissed all of Chevron’s arguments, including the allegations of fraud....
Great news -- an appeals court in Ecuador has upheld the $18 billion damages award imposed on Chevron for the damage caused by its deliberate dumping of more than 18 billion gallons of toxic waste-water in the country, known as the "Rainforest Chernobyl": The lawsuit deals with pollution of the rainforest by energy company Texaco, which Chevron bought in 2001. Chevron...
By Marty Lederman and Steve Vladeck* Section 1021 of the NDAA and the Laws of War In our companion post, we explained that section 1021 of the NDAA will not have the dramatic effects that many critics have predicted--in particular, that it will not affect the unresolved question of whether the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) would authorize a...
A group of distinguished Nuremberg scholars, including myself (minus the distinguished part), have filed an amicus brief in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum on behalf of the petitioners. The brief argues that although the Nuremberg trials themselves did not involve the prosecution of juridical persons such as corporations, a wide variety of Allied actions outside of judicial fora indicate that...
Was the Durban climate conference a success or failure? As always, the answer depends on one's frame of reference. As compared to the expectations going in, the outcome was more than I think most people thought possible. In a pre-Durban paper entitled "W[h]ither the Kyoto Protocol," I identified three scenarios: (1) business-as-usual, with modest progress in developing the Copenhagen/Cancun framework and...
Durban, South Africa, December 8 - The one silver lining to the slow pace of the climate change negotiations is that it gives one plenty of time to attend "side events" to learn what is going on in the broader world of climate policy. In the past couple of days, I attended side events on innovative climate finance, the "partnership...
Following up on Dan Bodansky's excellent post, and our interesting discussion here on MEAs, I wanted to point readers to this useful report from Durban by Reason's science correspondent Ronald Bailey. Bailey has a very useful breakdown on why China's supposed shift on its views on a new climate change treaty is really meaningless. Here is his summary of China's...
Another year, another climate COP. This year's conference of the parties (COP) is in Durban, South Africa. The South Africans have provided a wonderful venue and the meeting has proceeded thus far with few of the histrionics of Copenhagen and Cancun. But a certain weariness has crept into the proceedings, as massive numbers of people gather year after year, with...
Professor Telesetsky, in her generous comments on my article in volume 12(1) of the Melbourne Journal of International Law, raises two pertinent questions. First, why has there been a profusion of cooperative efforts across treaty bodies and second, what are the linkages that are most effective in compelling compliance with treaty regimes? In relation to the first question, Professor Telesetsky disagrees...
[Anastasia Telesetsky is an Associate Professor of Law at the University of Idaho] Professor Karen Scott’s recent publication on international environmental governance in the Melbourne Journal of International Law is a must-read piece for those concerned about international environmental law (‘IEL’) being fragmented and fractured across issues, institutions and implementation. In her article, Karen argues convincingly that the current disparate state...
