appeal

Amis de la Terre and Sherpa v. Perenco - appeal

<p>This entry was provided by the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law. Please see the terms of use for citation and licensing of third party data.</p>

Litigation

Sabin

Sabin Litigation

Filing Year For Action

Perenco is a French oil company specialized in the optimization of previously exploited oil wells. The company is increasingly present in Africa, and is the only oil operator present in the DRC. According to Friends of the Earth, Perenco has been implicated in numerous reports, investigations and interpellations by the Congolese Senate, local associations, and international NGOs for serious environmental and health violations.

Sherpa and Friends of the Earth France would like to take legal action to determine Perenco's responsibility for the reported pollution and environmental damage, and to obtain compensation, if necessary. Given the opacity of the operations and organization of the oil multinational, they have first initiated an action under article 145 of the Code of Civil Procedure to obtain more evidence of the link between Perenco France and the companies operating locally in the DRC. 

Under article 145 of the Code of Civil Procedure, any interested party may ask the French judge for an investigative measure if there is a legitimate reason to preserve or establish, before any proceedings, evidence that could be relevant to the resolution of a dispute., provided that the action envisaged is not manifestly inadmissible or would be contrary to the law or doomed to failure.

In 2019, Sherpa and Friends of the Earth France requested authorization to access internal documents of the company Perenco, to determine its role in activities denounced as harmful to the environment in the DRC. The Tribunal de Grande Instance of Paris and then the Paris Court of Appeal denied their request on September 17, 2020. Therefore, they “appealed” to the Court of Cassation.

The multinational argued that the case was inadmissible and should be decided according to Congolese law (which would have prevented the associations from gaining access to the evidence requested). The associations argued the admissibility of the action should be decided according to French law, which explicitly allows for action for compensation for ecological damage. They argued that they had standing and that the case was admissible because (i) they are an environmental protection association established in France, (ii) requesting all measures to preserve evidence that could determine the outcome of a future lawsuit to engage the liability of a company whose registered office is located in France, for environmental infringements carried out abroad.

On March 9, 2022, the Court of Cassation dismissed the Court of Appeal’s ruling. The Court of Cassation held that an organization’s standing to act in defense of a collective interest to obtain a measure of inquiry based on article 145 of the Code of Civil Procedure is assessed, not concerning the foreign law applicable to the action on the merits (in this instance, the Congolese law), but rather in accordance with (i) the law of the forum (lex fori) to determine the conditions for initiating the action and (ii) the law governing the corporate group for the limits of the corporate object within which it is initiated.
 
Therefore, the right to request any measures to preserve or establish evidence that could be relevant to the outcome of a case with a view to holding a company, whose registered office is located in France, liable for environmental damage observed abroad, is defined in the lex fori. The lex fori (or law of the forum) is an international law principle, which provides that the law of the jurisdiction or venue in which a legal action is brought applies. 

Amis de la Terre and Sherpa v. Perenco

The Climate Litigation Database

Find climate change litigation data and indicators for {text}.

{text} litigation

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law provides Climate Litigation Database, a comprehensive database of US and Global climate change caselaw

Quickly and easily search through the complete text of thousands of climate change law and policy documents from every country.

Search the Climate Litigation Database

An aim to achieve a quantifiable outcome within a given time-frame, set by an institution such as a national government.

Policy instruments are techniques or tools used by governing authorities to promote certain policies in order to achieve predetermined goals. Put simply, instruments are how a government tries to achieve its goals, with this taxonomy being focused on national policy instruments.

Risk is the potential for adverse consequences resulting from the dynamic interplay between (climate-related) hazards, exposure, and vulnerability of affected human or ecological systems.

Groups  of people who are adversely affected by climate change or the response to it

A set of principles, processes, and practices that build economic and political power to shift from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy.

Renewable energy means all forms of energy produced from renewable sources in a sustainable manner.

Fossil fuel is a generic term for non-renewable energy sources such as coal, fossil gas, and oil (including crude oil, and petroleum products), that can be used for electricity and heat generation. Fossil fuels are hydrocarbons formed from pressurised and heated organic material buried over millions of years.

Molecules in the atmosphere that play a key role in the greenhouse effect by trapping heat radiating from Earth’s surface.

Area of the economy in which actors engage in identical or related activities.

In human systems, the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate change and its effects, in order to moderate harm, increase resilience or exploit beneficial opportunities. In natural systems, the process of adjustment to actual climate change and its effects; human intervention may facilitate adjustment to expected climate change and its effects.

The management and allocation of funds, assets and investments to meet various objectives

Activities of government agencies and institutions that provide public services, enforce laws and manage public resources.

This sector includes firms and individuals offering specialised expertise in fields such as law, accounting, consulting, science and engineering.

Either money or something of monetary value is transferred between two or more organisations, people or countries.

Amis de la Terre and Sherpa v. Perenco - appeal

Economic sector

Finance