Legal CASES

Holding Corporations Accountable Worldwide

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EarthRights develops precedent-setting litigation and advances novel legal strategies.

Corporate Accountability

We expose environmental destruction, climate harms, and human rights abuses; challenging conduct, repairing harm, and preventing future abuses.
Climate

EarthRights ensures that fossil fuel companies take responsibility for their role in the climate crisis by representing local governments, shifting financial burdens away from communities, and promoting stronger oversight.
Indigenous Rights

We partner with Indigenous communities and networks, especially across Latin America and Southeast Asia, to uphold territorial stewardship, defend their rights to self-determination, and demand meaningful state action.
Environmental Defenders

EarthRights provides training, legal defense, and helps create and strengthen regional and international networks for defenders.

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La Fiscalía Provincial se abstuvo de impugnar la sentencia de segunda instancia que confirmaba la inocencia de todas las y los comuneros de Urinsaya.

Alcalde de Pasco demanda a minera Volcan para exigir justicia ambiental por contaminación en Cerro de Pasco

New Mexico’s Regulator Sued for Failure to Hold Oil and Gas Companies Accountable for Well Cleanup

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For over 30 years, we have been the nonprofit legal organization at the forefront of holding powerful corporations accountable for human rights and environmental abuses worldwide and to shift power back to the communities they harm.

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Metsagharun v. Chevron Nigeria

Status: Closed

Issues: Corporate Accountability

SUMMARY In what we believe was the first time that a public interest group used the FLA to assist communities in a case against a U.S. multinational corporation, we sought to obtain information from Chevron regarding the negative impacts of gas flaring in Nigeria. Nigerian communities had sued Chevron in Nigeria over gas flaring, and…
Norperuano Pipeline Contamination

Status: Ongoing

Issues: EarthRights Defenders

SUMMARY Communities in the Peruvian Amazon – especially indigenous communities – have been suffering from numerous oil spills from the Norperuano Pipeline for nearly 50 years. The pipeline is operated by the Peruvian government, through its state-owned oil company PetroPeru. Official statistics confirm at least 37 spills between 1996 and 2016 alone – nearly two…
Campos-Alvarez v. Newmont Mining

Status: Closed

Issues: Corporate Accountability, EarthRights Defenders

Case Status: Closed-Successful SUMMARY In Peru, police brutality against earth rights defenders is a systemic problem especially in the context of extractive industries. One emblematic example of police repression occurred in November 2011 when protestors convened at the site of the proposed Conga mine project in Cajamarca. The group had convened to nonviolently protest the…
American Petroleum Institute v. SEC v. Oxfam

Status: Closed

Issues: Corporate Accountability

SUMMARY When an oil industry group challenged U.S. regulations that would require disclosure of their payments to foreign governments, EarthRights represented Oxfam America to help defend the regulations. As part of EarthRights’ overall work to promote extractive revenue transparency under Section 1504 of the Dodd-Frank Act, we have fought to keep these important rules on…
Oxfam America v. Securities and Exchange Commission

Status: Closed

Issues: Corporate Accountability

SUMMARY When the U.S. Congress passed Section 1504 of the Dodd-Frank Act directing the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to issue regulations requiring oil, gas, and mining companies to disclose the payments they make to governments, it set a deadline for the SEC of April 2011. As part of our extractive revenue transparency work, EarthRights International…