Hard times for Shell. On 12 February 2021, two weeks after the Court of Appeal of The Hague found Shell subsidiary and parent company liable for oil spills in Nigeria in a landmark ruling, the UK Supreme Court, in a much awaited ruling, confirmed that proceedings against the parent company could continue before UK courts for similar issues raised by Nigerian farming and fishing communities, as real issues were to be tried.
Read moreCategory: Rulings Summary & Analysis
Landmark ruling: Shell subsidiary and parent company found liable for oil spills in Nigeria
On January 29, 2021, the Court of Appeals of The Hague found in two judgements (cases A and B and cases C and D in Dutch) Shell Nigeria (SPDC) and its parent company Royal Dutch Shell (RDS) responsible for oil spills in the Niger Delta in Nigeria.
Read moreTrump administration against corporate liability for human rights violations under Alien Tort Statute
On May 26, 2020, the Trump administration filed a brief amicus curiae in the Cargill Inc. v John Doe case, urging the Supreme Court to hold that domestic corporations cannot be liable for human rights violations under the Alien Tort Statute (ATS).
In this case, former child slaves who were forced to work on cocoa farms in the Ivory Coast claim that Nestle US and Cargill aided and abetted slave labour by providing financial support and technical farming aid to famers, subjecting defendants to suit under the ATS.
Read moreLandmark ruling: Canadian corporations may be held liable for breaches of international human rights law says the Supreme Court!
On February 28, 2020, the Canadian Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling in the Araya v. Nevsun Resources Ltd case, dismissing Nevsun’s motion to strike, considering that “it is not plain and obvious that corporations today enjoy a blanket exclusion under customary international law from direct liability for violations of obligatory, definable, and universal norms of international law”.
Read moreLandmark settlement: ANZ bank compensating displaced Cambodian farmers by a client’s project it financed
The settlement reached in February 2020 by Equitable Cambodia and Inclusive Development International on behalf of Cambodian victims and ANZ bank, under the auspices of the Australian National Contact Point (AusNCP) is the first of its kind for the global banking industry.
In a joint statement published on 27 February 2020, “ANZ recognises the continuing hardships faced by the affected communities, and has agreed to pay the profit it earned from the loan, to the affected communities”.
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