International Investment Agreements, Human Rights, and Environmental Justice: The Texaco/Chevron Case From the Ecuadorian Amazon
2020
The Texaco/Chevron lawsuit, which started in November 1993 and is still being litigated
in 2020, is a prominent example ofthe process of judicialization of environmental conflict.
The Ecuadorian plaintiffs claim that the oil company’s operations generated ruinous
impacts on the environment and on the development prospects and health of nearby
individuals and communities. The tortuous and lengthy judiciary process was further
hindered by an arbitration process, an Investor–State Dispute Settlement mechanism
nested in the Ecuador—United States Bilateral Investment Treaty. The significance of the
case goes beyond the specifics of Ecuador and provides further arguments fuelling the
protracted legitimacy crisis experienced by International Investment Agreements. The
current praxis of Investor–State Dispute Settlement mechanisms is generating an asymmetrical system, protectingthe interest of investors, and intruding intothe space of human
and environmental rights. These issues are resonating with social movements, activist
scholars and policy makers who are reacting to the vulnerabilities engendered by International Investment Agreements through multipronged strategies. These asymmetries
provide ammunition to resist the signing of new International Investment Agreements,
support the inclusion of human and environmental rights safeguards in International
Investment Agreements, and contributetothe rationale of pre-empting extractive projects
that are likely to produce severe environmental liabilities. Some of the potential ways in which a somewhat more level playing field can be created include, in addition to denouncing investment agreements, transforming Investor–State Dispute Settlement mechanisms
towards a format that can also accommodate the complaints of affected communities or
enacting moratoria on extraction projects that are prone to adverse socioenvironmental
impacts. Both strategies could prove to be productive avenues towards the achievement
of justice.
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