In February of 2011 the Ecuadorian Courts delivered an historic verdict, sentencing the Big Oil Corporation Chevron-Texaco to pay US$9,500 million dollars for its contamination of the Ecuadorian Amazon (1964-1992). However, Chevron hit back via the Investor-State Dispute Settlement system (ISDS) and sued Ecuador in the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) based in the Hague. The corporation accused Ecuador of having violated Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs) it had signed with the US. In August of 2018, a private arbitration panel for the CPA ruled in favour of Chevron, ordering Ecuador to overturn the sentence it had passed in favour of the affected. At the heart of the matter is an illegal, unconstitutional and inapplicable judgement that contravenes international public order. Pablo Fajardo and Justino Piaguaje, lawyer and representative of the Union of those affected by the Chevron-Texaco (UDAPT) respectively, explain how this ruling violates Ecuadorian sovereignty and constitutes a major case of corporate impunity that risks setting dangerous precedents for the defence of the natural world and of collective human rights.
