On 18 December 2015, the Court of Appeal of The Hague in The Netherlands handed down three judgments in connection with the ‘Shell Nigeria issue’: a series of claims brought by Nigerian residents and by the association Vereniging Milieudefensie against four legal entities belonging to the Shell Group based on allegations of environmental damage resulting from the group’s operations in Nigeria. In its judgments, the Court of Appeal discussed the issue as a matter to be decided under Nigerian, and by extension, common law. With all reservations, the chance that Milieudefensie et al.’s claims would succeed under the applicable Nigerian common law should not be dismissed.
European Company Law