Oil companies don’t deserve reparations for fossil fuel bans. They’ll still want them
Phasing out fossil fuel is a crucial step to address the climate emergency. But to do so will mean facing not only political and economic obstacles, but legal ones. Fossil fuel companies can use domestic and international laws to demand compensation for bans on fossil fuels or prohibitions on the extraction of oil or coal. The legal system can make our collective transition to a green economy easier, or more difficult; among other things, it can increase the bill we pay for a healthy environment. Like big tobacco, big oil can and will litigate.
This legal question becomes especially serious because companies like Shell and Exxon-Mobil can bring cases to a jurisdiction that they contributed to creating in the first place â a forum specially fit for their purposes.
In the late 1950s, Shell and other oil firms were concerned about maintaining control of the global southâs natural resources. Decolonization was a risk to their business model. They were also worried that governments in both south and north were taking a more active role in the economy. The lawyers of oil firms and international bankers joined forces to imagine a legal regime that would protect their oil and mineral businesses from state intervention. This regime would consist of a structure of international treaties and international arbitration known as investor-state dispute settlement, or ISDS. Although the wording of these treaties remained vague, their expectation was that international arbitration would serve to develop the proper legal rules to
The future of arbitration in India: Strengthening the process of alternative dispute resolution
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The future of arbitration in India: Strengthening the process of alternative dispute resolutionBy Manoj K Singh, ET CONTRIBUTORS
Last Updated: Apr 17, 2021, 01:28 PM IST
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Synopsis
The Arbitration and Conciliation Act 1996 has been modelled on lines of the UNCITRAL framework of laws with the idea to modernize Indian arbitration law and bring it in line with the best global practices and also make India a global hub for arbitration.
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The 2019 Amendment has also introduced a tiered system of referring disputes to arbitral institutions.
Being a global economic powerhouse, and in the interest of integrating with the global business community, Indian laws have repeatedly been amended to keep the country at par with legal regimes in other leading commercial law jurisdictions.
Latin Lawyer Valves in an Ecuadorean oil well in the Amazon (Credit: Shutterstock.com/Dr Morley Read)
An Argentine-owned energy company is bringing a United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) claim against Ecuador over the termination of contracts to exploit Amazonian oil projects, a dispute that has already given rise to a US$515 million award against the state.
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