Legal Work
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.
Litigation in the U.S.
From a landmark Supreme Court victory that ended the absolute immunity that once shielded international finance institutions, to the first ever U.S. jury verdict holding a major American corporation liable for overseas human rights violations, to historic settlements that benefited frontline communities across the world, our litigation builds the legal architecture for corporate accountability.
What Our Cases Have Done
When corporations or governments violate the law, abuse human rights, or imperil community health, lands or climate, we bring strategic litigation to defend communities, vindicate their rights in court, and change the legal rules that operate in the background.
Alongside our major impact litigation, EarthRights also uses 28 U.S.C. §1782 to obtain evidence through U.S. courts for communities seeking justice abroad—strengthening the scope of evidence disclosure in courts and tribunals around the world.
Changed Who Can Be Sued
We helped establish that U.S. courts can hear cases under the Alien Tort Statute (“ATS”) against American companies that use or profit from violence abroad. We convinced the Supreme Court to hold that multilateral development banks can no longer hide behind “absolute immunity.” And we won the first jury trial to hold accountable an American company for human rights to communities abroad, showing that corporate efforts to convince the Supreme Court to curb the application of the ATS would not deter us from seeking and achieving justice for affected communities.
Changed Whose Voices Matter
By centering the experiences of Indigenous peoples, rural farmers, and frontline communities, we’ve ensured that their voices and demands shape both legal precedent and concrete remedies.
How We Work
We collaborate with community organizations, movements, and local lawyers to design strategies to achieve justice in a way that matches communities’ needs.
Community-Led
We are a litigation team that follows the lead of communities who refuse to accept corporate impunity and legal violations as the status quo.
High Stakes Cases
We take on high stakes cases where the potential impact reaches far beyond a single plaintiff.
Real-World Changes
We pair courtroom work with advocacy, media, and policy efforts so that legal victories translate into both meaningful remedies and real-world changes in how corporations and financiers operate.
Our Legal Work in Southeast Asia
We support communities affected by environmental harms by bringing together the power of law and power of people. Our approach relies on a community of lawyers and legal advocates working with communities and campaigners. EarthRights works to build this community of lawyers from the ground up. This includes a training program for junior lawyers and legal advocates, the Mekong Legal Advocacy Institute (MLAI) and our alumni network which brings together legal advocates from MLAI and campaigners and community leaders from the EarthRights School. Another crucial element of this community is the Mekong Legal Network (MLN).
Our Legal Work in Latin America
We offer legal advice and representation so that individuals and communities can access justice. Through the resolution of specific cases, we seek to establish precedents that influence regulatory frameworks for the protection of human rights and the environment.
Help us fight for justice
In a world where climate disruption is accelerating, corporate harm often goes unchecked, and threats against advocates continue to rise, our victories remind us where we’re most needed and most effective.