Chevron’s Pollution Victory Opens Door for Companies to Shirk Foreign Verdicts

By Paul Barrett, Bloomberg Businessweek

Chevron wasn’t the only winner in Monday’s ruling by a federal appeals court over its long-running Ecuadorian pollution litigation. The victory, in which the court affirmed that a lawyer for victims engaged in wrongdoing to secure a $9.5 billion verdict in the South American country, may benefit other corporations seeking to avoid enforcement of foreign judgments they contend are based on corrupt proceedings.

Or, if you’re an anti-corporate activist, you can put it this way: “The decision hands well-heeled corporations a template for avoiding legal accountability anywhere in the world.” That’s the assessment of Deepak Gupta, the lawyer for Steven Donziger, the controversial New York attorney who’s ...