Courts threaten Ecuador over Chevron case

Now Ecuador has to follow U.S. courts?

Oil giant Chevron has long been a defendant in a major pollution lawsuit filed by Ecuadorian plaintiffs. But now a New York judge has ordered the plaintiffs not to go outside the U.S. to enforce any ruling against Chevron.

Um, the case is in an Ecuadorian court, not a New York court. (It was moved out of the New York court years ago, and the trial has been conducted wholly by Ecuador.) So tough toilets, Chevron.

Then "international arbitrators" ordered Ecuador not to enforce any judgment itself.

What?

Ecuador has its own laws. "International arbitrators" don't get to decide what Ecuador's laws are.

Meanwhile, Chevron has countersued the plaintiffs for supposedly infringing on Chevron's precious, precious "right" to contaminate the rainforest with oil drilling waste.

I think what's going on here is this: Chevron knows it can't bully the Ecuadorian judge, so it's trying to move the whole case to the U.S. in the hopes it'll be tried by some whack-a-doodle Bush appointee instead. Hopefully, the case won't end up in the 9th Circus, seeing how they're the corporate droids who overturned the Exxon Valdez award.

(Source: http://in.reuters.com/article/2011/02/11/idINIndia-54839020110211)