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Article

28 Mar 2012

Author:
Roger James campaigner for Oxfam South West in Bristol, Bristol 124-7 [UK]

Roger James: Global justice under threat from Legal Aid plans [UK]

In 2001, the Bodo community from the Niger Delta successfully used current UK legislation to win compensation, via British courts, from Shell after environmental damage to 2,000 hectares of land caused by multiple oil spills…Zabbey Nenibarini, who led the campaign against Shell says: “The British courts provided us with fairness and justice to rebuild our communities and our businesses. This was achieved with no cost to the British taxpayer.”…But the UK government is… proposing to change the system so that lawyers’ success fees and the insurance premiums would be paid out of the damages awarded to the victim instead of being paid by the losing company. In practice this would make bringing a court case financially impossible for many victims from developing countries…tragically, the Lords have just rejected amendments (see Division 6) to protect rights of overseas victims of right abuses... [also refers to Trafigura, BP]

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