Thanks Kesa – I like the question mark - here is a link to a short video showing the judges announcing their judgment (with subtitles), followed by reactions:
Basically, people from three villages are seeking damages in the Dutch courts as a result of oil spills, suing both Shell Nigeria and Royal Dutch Shell plc - i.e., both the subsidiary company inNigeria, and the parent company registered in the UK with its principal place of business inThe Hague.
On 30th January 2013, the first instance District Court of The Hague held that Shell Nigeria was liable to pay damages to Mr. Friday Alfred Akpan of Ikot Ada Udo inAkwaIbomState arising out of one of the three spills as a result of Shell Nigeria’s negligence in not securing a long-abandoned well-head to protect it from sabotage. The other claims were dismissed, and an appeal is expected.
You can access an English translation of the judgment in the Akpan case at the link below – interestingly, the court refused to follow the reasoning in the gas flaring case (Gbemre) I mentioned in the lecture which had found Shell Nigeria to have violated the constitutionally-guaranteed rights to life and dignity, saying that that case was about active conduct over a long period, not negligence, and that as far as the court could verify “to date there have been no Nigerian rulings in which a reprehensible failure in horizontal relationships such as the one at issue and in the event of sabotage by third parties is considered to be an infringement of a human right.”
Peter
