Summary
A protective action was presented before the Constitutional Court of Ecuador for the protection of the rights of nature in the Mississippi Canyon, where there was an oil spill by the British Petroleum company. The lawsuit was filed by a group of citizens and a series of reparation measures were requested that include guarantees of non-repetition, restoration, compensation, and the publicity of the company’s operations. The court ruled against the plaintiff, deciding that, “in order for an action to succeed against an act or omission caused by a person in a certain territory, and that supposedly causes extraterritorial effects such as damage to nature, there are international Courts and Tribunals with international extraterritorial competence that may well substantiate and sanction with extraterritorial effects.”