Arbitrators say they can hear Chevron-Ecuador case

Ecuador trial: Arbitration panel makes jurisdiction decision

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By News Wires

 29 February 2012 00:03 GMT

An international tribunal has found that it has jurisdiction to decide if Ecuador violated a treaty with the United States requiring it to guarantee a fair trial to Chevron Corp in an environmental lawsuit that ended in an $18 billion judgment against the oil company.

A Tuesday posting on Chevron's website that was attributed to the tribunal read: "The tribunal declares that it has jurisdiction to proceed to the merits phase of these arbitration proceedings," a Reuters report read.

The panel was set up through The Hague's Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA), and works under rules established by the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law.

Ecuador's attorney general has argued that the tribunal has no jurisdiction because the bilateral trade agreement between the United States and the Andean country went into effect five years after Texaco ended…

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