Global Pollution, Multi-national oil companies, and State Power: The Case of Yaiguaje v. Chevron Corp.

• In Event: Crime, State Power, and State Responses

Abstract

This is a case study of an ongoing class action tort claim against one of the largest multi-national oil companies in the world, Chevron Corporation. It highlights not only the early work of Sutherland on white collar crime (1940; 1949; 1983), but addresses the role of global corporate power as this major oil company aggressively fights to not pay a $9.5 billion dollar damage award issued by the Ecuadorian courts. Indeed, Chevron recently won a judgment against legal counsel and the plaintiffs under the U.S. racketeering statutes, claiming that the judgment in Ecuador is fraudulent in itself. Here, we find notions of green criminology being fought in the civil courts (no one has suggested criminal liability) with a multi-national corporation refusing to pay the foreign judgment by accusing the plaintiffs, their counsel, and the Ecuadorian courts of fraud. This phenomena is consistent with criminological literature dating back to Bonger (1916), and more recently the work of Quinney (1970, 2002), Chambliss (1976) and Reiman and Leighton (2012).

Authors

• Matthew G. Yeager, King's University College (UWO)

• Jade L. Smith, Brescia University College (UWO)