The Power of Law, Power of People training materials contained on this page were prepared by Gillian Caldwell and Louis Spitzer on behalf of EarthRights International for use in building the capacity of advocates, lawyers and campaigners globally to combine litigation with campaigns in order to advance “earth rights” and guard against human rights and environmental abuse.
The materials are based on a series of four distinct lawsuits and associated campaigns, all of which were pursued by EarthRights International and its partners in countries around the world including Peru, Nigeria, Cambodia and Myanmar (Burma). Each case is presented through a combination of three teaching tools: a short (10-20 minute) video, a case study, and a lesson plan including several sample participatory exercises for engaging students in achieving learning objectives. It should be noted that the lesson plan exercises are inter-changeable, so for example the Koh Kong Lesson plan could be adapted for use with the Wiwa v. Shell Case Study and Video if that were preferable. Additionally, there is a brief Impact Litigation Overview that is intended as reference material to accompany learning in any of the cases, and includes case selection criteria as well as EarthRights’ top 10 ingredients for successful impact litigation.
