에콰도르 환경분쟁소송의 국제성에 관한 연구 - 쉐브론 사건을 중심으로 -

The development of energy which is essential to human life is susceptible to disputes involving the violations of human rights of indigenous peoples and the infringement of the environments of theirs. Disputes from projects in energy sector whose duration is very long and in which huge amount of money is invested are arbitrated very often these days. The Chevron case is about alleged infringements of Amazonian rain-forest areas where oil drilling sites are situated. For more than two decades, there have been two treaty-based investor-State arbitrations requested and complex domestic litigations conducted in various jurisdictions. The Chevron case has been disputed even before the Supreme Courts of the U.S.A., Ecuador, Netherlands, Canada, Argentina, and a good many preliminary applications have been made in the U.S. courts with respect to the proceedings before arbitral tribunals in the Hague, Netherlands and domestic courts in Ecuador. Recently, a court in New York decided that the judgement made by a court in Ecuador against Chevron was obtained by fraud, bribery and irregular activities on the part of the attorneys for the Lago Agrio Plaintiffs, and that therefore the Ecuadorian judgment should not be enforceable in the U.S.A. due to the principle of public policy. Chevron also raised tort claims before the court in Gibraltar against a third-party funding company with respect to the tainted Ecuadorian judgment. The Chevron case shows clearly how environmental disputes in a particular state can be internationalized in circumstances where a multinational corporation is involved.