Workshop on International Law, Natural Resources and Sustainable
Development
The Future of Foreign Direct Liability? Exploring the International Relevance of the Dutch
Shell Nigeria Case
Liesbeth Enneking
Faculty of Law, University of Utrecht
In January 2013, the The Hague district court in the Netherlands rendered a groundbreaking
verdict in a civil liability suit against Royal Dutch Shell (RDS) and its Nigerian subsidiary Shell
Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC). The lawsuit had been brought before it
by four Nigerian farmers and the Dutch NGO Milieudefensie, in response to a number of oil
spill incidents from SPDC-operated pipelines in the Nigerian Niger Delta that had caused
damage to the neighbouring farmers' lands and fishponds, compromising their livelihoods.
Although dismissing most of the plaintiffs' claims, the district court in its ruling did grant one
claim that related to oil spills from an abandoned wellhead, ordering SPDC to pay
compensation for the resulting loss. The judgment reached by the The Hague district court
in this case holds international relevance, as the case forms part of a worldwide trend
towards foreign direct liability claims: transboundary civil liability claims against
multinational corporations in relation to harm caused to people and planet as a result of
their activities in (mostly developing) host countries. Growing numbers of similar cases have
been brought before courts in other Western societies like the US and the UK, but
judgments on the merits have so far remained scarce. The relevance of the The Hague
district court’s decision in the Dutch Shell Nigeria-case has further increased with the US
Supreme Court’s recent ruling in the case of Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum, which has
significantly limited the scope of the Alien Tort Statute, an obscure 1789 federal statute that
long provided the most popular legal basis for foreign direct liability claims. This article
explores the The Hague district court’s decision in the Dutch Shell Nigeria-case, and places
the case within the socio-legal context of foreign direct liability cases and the international
debates on corporate social responsibility and accountability, and business & human rights.