Lessons from the Chevron Ecuador Litigation: The Proposed Intervenors' Perspective

Resumen

This Article is based on a presentation to the Symposium, Lessons From the Chevron Ecuador Litigation at Stanford Law School. It begins by offering some observations, from the field, on the application of the forum non conveniens doctrine by the Aguinda v. Texaco court to dismiss the initial lawsuit in the ongoing litigation related to Texaco's oil extraction operations in the Amazon Rainforest in Ecuador, and then discusses one of the affected Indigenous peoples, the Huaorani (Waorani). It concludes by suggesting some lessons that could be learned from the experience of the Huaorani with the litigation. The author has worked in region affected by Chevron's operations since 1989 and her original research was the basis for the environmental allegations in the initial Aguinda v. Texaco complaint.