By Theodore J. Boutrous, Jr.
Of the many thorny issues raised by transnational litigation against U.S. companies, the lawsuit that Chevron Corporation is fighting in Ecuador touches on them all: legal ethics, weak and corrupt foreign judiciaries, litigation fraud, judgment enforcement, third-party litigation financing, cross-border discovery, and international arbitration, to name just a few. In fact, one of the attorneys representing the Ecuadorian plaintiffs recently described the case as a “model” for future transnational litigation, a template for forcing U.S. companies to foot the bill for all manner of alleged injuries abroad.
