Download And Enjoy Law Of The Jungle: The $19 Billion Legal Battle Over Oil In The Rain Forest And The Lawyer Whod Stop At Nothing To Win Crafted By Paul M. Barrett Available In Interactive EBook

a truly well writeen story that does not need emebelleshing, As corporation show in this book that they truly don't care about the poor and will spend so much money to ensure that they endure no consequences, Shows how the ones endure the worst pain are likely to never ger justice while the corupt elite continue on with their business, The legal battle over Texaco's petroleum contamination in the Ecuadorian Amazon has taken so many twists and turns over the decades that it can't easily be summarized even in a longish online think piece, so Paul Barrett's wellorganized book is probably as good a place to start as any.
The story is a testament to the idea that for every lawyer there is an equal and opposite lawyer: in this case, the crusading obsessive Steven Donziger versus the legal might of Chevron, one of the largest and mostprofitable corporations on the planet, duking it out over billions of dollars in liability for environmental contamination.


Barrett's overall stance is slightly proChevron, but his telling of the basic facts of the case is fairly persuasive, Starting in thes, Texaco discovered oil in a previously undeveloped region of the Ecuadorian Amazon, and it operated the oil fields in a consortium with the Ecuadorian government until.
In the process, Texaco left behind waste oil in hundreds of unlined pits in the rain forest !!!, dumped vast quantities of toxic "produced" water directly into the rivers, and drove a rapid settlement and industrialization process in a previously isolated indigenous region.
Texaco also directed that any records of environmental mishaps be destroyed, aided by a series of unstable Quitobased governments who sought to profit off the oil revenues, rather than regulate the environmental harm.


In, a team of lawyers led by Steven Donziger filed suit in New York on behalf of residents of the contaminated region Aguinda v Texaco, Texaco successfully argued that the suit should be moved to Ecuador, and inthe suit was refiled in Lago Agrio, right in the heart of the oil fields, Chevron acquired the lawsuit when it bought Texaco in, For their part, Chevron argues that aagreement to remediate a portion of the oil pits absolves them of any liability, and that any remaining contamination is the responsibility of the government of Ecuador.
The plaintiffs counter that the agreement did not apply to private individuals, who are still free to bring lawsuits, and that because Texaco made the daytoday operational decisions they are the proper liable party.


We sitelinkvisited the Lago Agrio region in late, while the Aguinda lawsuit was still going on, and took a "toxics tour" organized by the plaintiff's organization.
We saw a shocking level of oil contamination in the midst of a beautiful rain forest large pools of oil that had apparently been sitting there since the 's, some with installed overflow pipes leading into the nearby rivers, some close to houses and communities.
We were also taken to sites that Texaco claimed to have remediated in thes, where modest homes sat on top of dirt that had been bulldozed over the oil.
A few shovelfuls quickly uncovered dirt that stank like oil, Since that trip I've been mildly obsessed with the case,

In, Chevron's strategy failed and the Lago Agrio court found Chevron guilty and ordered a massive,billion judgment doubled toB if they didn't say "sorry", However, Chevron counterattacked with a series of discovery motions that found that Donziger, Pablo Fajardo and the other plaintiffs' lawyers had basically selected and ghostwritten the report of the courtappointed expert a massive nono in U.
S. courts, although Donziger claims the norms are different in Ecuador, Chevron then filed and won a RICO suit against Donziger in U, S. courts. The judge prevented the plaintiffs from collecting damages on Chevron assets in the U, S. and found Donziger guilty of racketeering for allegedly bribing and ghostwriting the judge's final verdict, Which sounds pretty bad, but consider the racketeering evidence is largely based on uncorroborated testimony from an unreliable former judge who is now on the Chevron payroll and living in the U.
S.

Barnett largely concludes that Donziger is guilty and seems quite attracted to the story of a flawed idealist who crossed ethical lines in pursuit of justice, I would tend to agree that Donziger badly overstepped a number of bounds, He has admitted to "sitelinkmistakes" but denies any serious wrongdoing, In the dirty tricks department, Chevron's hands are not clean either, which does tend to raise questions of reasonable doubt about the RICO verdict,

The legal intricacies and dramatic reversals have been fodder for a number of online legal analysts and "sitelinkchevronologists, " If you are curious to go deeper down the rabbit hole, you can read Donziger's sitelinkown account of the case here, Chevron's take sitelinkhere, and an interesting analysis of the RICO verdict from a legal group sympathetic to Donziger sitelinkhere.


It's not clear what will happen next, The RICO case is currently under appeal, but for the moment the plaintiffs are unable to collect any rewards in U, S. courts. Chevron holds no assets in Ecuador, but lawsuits have been filed in Canada, Argentina and Brazil, The plaintiffs have a sitelinknew lawyer and are arguing that whatever Donziger's screwups they should not be held accountable for his sins, I would have thought that given the convoluted history a new trial might be a good idea, but as several legal experts have pointed out, the Lago Agrio verdict was upheld on appeal by another Ecuadorian court, of which there has been no allegations of impropriety.
Texaco originally argued that it was Ecuador's case to decide well, they seem to have gotten their wish,

It's at the conclusion that Barrett's "pox on both houses" reporting style partly misses the larger picture, The facts of the case seem to indicate that Chevron is almost certainly liable for at least a fraction of the contamination, Petroecuador certainly shares responsibility, but that fact does not absolve Chevron, But is it even possible to bring one of the world's largest multinational corporations to justice As Barrett notes, it was more costeffective for Chevron in the shortrun to "fight until hell freezes over" and then "fight it out on the ice" rather than settle seen as a sign of weakness by management.
But in the long run, Chevron has spent a few billion in legal fees, the rainforest remains polluted, the region remains quite poor, local inhabitants continue to get sick, and environmental justice remains elusive.
pompous ass lawyers trying to do their best, i suppose . The murky and ultimately discouraging story of a longrunning attempt to hold a major oil company responsible for environmental damage in Ecuador, The story is particularly timely: Just last week, new areas of Ecuador were opened to drilling by Chinese companies in territory occupied by isolated indigenous peoples territory that was supposed to remain offlimits forever.


This book details the way a case that began with the best of intentions to clean up a mess left behind by Texaco later Chevron when it departed Ecuador fell apart not only because of a massive counterassault by Chevon, but to some extent because of the grandiosity and misjudgments of the plaintiffs' representatives.
Barrett's account focuses on the lead attorney, Steven Donziger, which seems to have resulted in a defamation charge and scathing attack by supporters of Donziger and this complex, longrunning lawsuit.
As an initial introduction to this story, the book is readable and the author cites sources, But without comparing with more sources, it's hard to know where the truth lies, Clearly, it's complicated and that seems to be one of the ways multinational corporations are able to drag out cases like this while the environmental damage remains and the people who've been most affected go without compensation or justice.
The gripping story of one American lawyers obsessive crusadewaged at any costagainst Big Oil on behalf of the poor farmers and indigenous tribes of the Amazon rainforest,

Steven Donziger, a selfstyled social activist and Harvard educated lawyer, signed on to a budding class action lawsuit against multinational Texaco which later merged with Chevron to become the thirdlargest corporation in America.
The suit sought reparations for the Ecuadorian peasants and tribes people whose lives were affected by decades of oil production near their villages and fields,   During twenty years of legal hostilities in federal courts in Manhattan and remote provincial tribunals in the Ecuadorian jungle, Donziger and Chevrons lawyers followed fierce noholdsbarred rules,  Donziger, a largerthanlife, loudmouthed showman, proved himself a master orchestrator of the media, Hollywood, and public opinion, He cajoled and coerced Ecuadorian judges on the theory that his noble ends justified any means of persuasion, And in the end, he won an unlikely victory, abillion judgment against Chevonthe biggest environmental damages award in history,   But the company refused to surrender or compromise, Instead, Chevron targeted Donziger personally, and its counterattack revealed damning evidence of his politicking and manipulation of evidence, Suddenly the verdict, and decades of Donzigers singleminded pursuit of the case, began to unravel,   
 
Written with the texture and flair of the best narrative nonfiction, Law of the Jungle is an unputdownable story in which there are countless victims, a vast region of ruined rivers and polluted rainforest, but very few heroes.
I read a galley copy that I received from the author, Paul Barrett, a couple months ago when I was up visiting New York City, I met Paul when he came out with his previous book, Glock, Since I know firearms, Glocks, forums, blogs, and social media, I helped show and introduce him around, I'm helping him again. And, as part of that, I read Law of the Jungle by Paul M, Barrett
Law of the Jungle: TheBillion Legal Battle Over Oil in the Rain Forest and the Lawyer Who'd Stop at Nothing to Win,

I know a lot less about what happened in Ecuador that I do about plastic pistols, That said, that helped since the non fiction book was a cliff hanger for me, I didn't ruin it by jumping on Wikipedia or reading Paul's reporting about the Cofán Indians

v, Texaco/Chevron or spoiling it by looking at Wikipedia, so the subject was new to me,

One thing I notices about this book that was very much like Glock was how balanced the reporting is, This book is going to piss off both the environmentalists as well as the free market capitalists as well, The sign of good reporting is that both sides feel slighted,

While this book is primarily an exploration of the cult of personality known as Steven Donziger, the largerthanlife, Harvardeducated, classaction lawyer who took an unwinnable David and Goliath case between the plaintiffs in the Lago Agrio oil field case the indigenous Cofán people against Texaco now part of Chevron.


Like any David v Goliath case, I thought I would be rooting for Donziger and his lieutenant Pablo Fajardo however, both sides played for their lives and Steven Donziger was maybe a little too open and honest about what lengths he was willing to take to win the lawsuit.


At the end of the day, there were two heroes: Pablo Fajardo and the Rule of Law,

I also highly recommend watching the movie Crude it's a documentary commissioned by Donziger and directed by Joe Berlinger it's amazing to put faces to names and voices to text after you've explored such a maddening international circus.


Hell, there's even a cameo by Sting and his wife, Trudie Styler, as Steven Donziger brings world attention to one of the worst oil spill/environmental disaster, the Lago Agrio oil field in Ecuador.


I must admit, it took me a while to read the book, The Law of the Jungle's beautifully written and is easy to read, Like I said before, it's balanced, journalistic, and even brings the author into the narrative it goes from strikingly objective to rather personal however, it still was a challenging read because I am neither a lawyer nor an environmentalist.


That said, it's amazing to see how the legal, judicial, environmental, and capitalist systems work, under the hood and when nobody should look note: thing twice about commissioning an allaccess documentary film crew if you have impulse control and tend to want to blurt morally ambiguous advice and offer noholdsbarred strategy that may well be how things are done in Quito but don't come across very well in US Courts just don't do it!.


I am glad I read the book, It changed me. As you might have guessed, I am skeptical and don't consider myself an environmentalist at all, I am also neither a lawyer nor a political operator, That said, I wonder where I have been hiding because I had not heard anything about this case at all and I wonder why, I guess I am in a silo,

That's the good thing about the book: I believe it'll be able to speak outside of and across the silos and echo chambers that tend to only preach to the choir.


Paul Barrett did the same thing with his book Glock: he wrote a book that transcended the pro and antigun conversation,

The Law of the Jungle has surely been able to transcend both the pro and antienvironmentalists and also the pro and anticapitalists, too,

I haven't read a book that has changed me as much since reading Showdown at Gucci Gulch by Jeffrey Birnbaum, .