Bernstein and Robina Fellows Work on Ramifications of Development

Yale Law School students have a long history of interest and involvement in the social and human rights ramifications of large scale, internationally financed, development projects overseas. Whether working through the courts or in advocacy roles with international and local NGOs, these students have placed a premium on not only identifying and using legal mechanisms for redress in instances of potential harm but also on ensuring that the affected communities are partners in the process. Both Robert L. Bernstein International Human Rights Fellows and Robina Foundation International Human Rights Fellows have been involved in these efforts.

In 2001, Marco Simons ’01 received a Bernstein International Human Rights Fellowship to work at EarthRights International (ERI) on human rights litigation against corporations, having spent the previous summer at the EarthRights field office in Thailand. Much of his fellowship year was spent working on Doe v. Unocal, which was an attempt to hold multinational oil companies liable for abuses associated with the Yadana gas pipeline project in Burma.

Marco now heads ERI’s Legal Program. With his colleagues and partners around the world, he has represented victims in transnational human rights cases in U.S. courts, including the Alien Tort Statute cases, Wiwa v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co. (Shell), Bowoto v. Chevron, and Doe v. Chiquita. He also directs ERI’s efforts to enhance accountability at the international level and to increase legal support for the protection of human rights and the environment in the Mekong basin and the Amazon region.

A new generation of Robina and Bernstein Fellows is joining Marco in putting human rights to work for communities affected by large-scale development projects. Daniel Hessel ’16 recently started a Bernstein Fellowship with ERI in its Chiang Mai office, working with local communities.

Julie Hunter ’13, a 2013 Robina Fellow, spent a year working as an attorney with Blue Ocean Law, a Pacific-based human rights practice specializing in indigenous, environmental, and human rights issues. Blue Ocean Law recently completed, with the Pacific Network on Globalization, a detailed legal and policy analysis of deep sea mining in the Pacific region, and its potential impact on local communities.

Lani Inverarity ’15 LLM is completing a second year of her Robina Fellowship at Accountability Counsel. She has been working with communities in Colombia, Kenya, Liberia, and Haiti to hold international finance and development agencies accountable for environmental and human rights violations caused by the projects they finance. She has sought a remedy for violations by a biofuels company in Liberia and has documented the effects of an expansion of the El Dorado Airport in Bogotá, Colombia. Most recently, she traveled to Mongolia to support ongoing dialogue between a global mining company and some of the world’s last remaining nomadic herder communities, living in the South Gobi region of Mongolia.

“Billions of dollars of international finance are being spent on projects that fail to respect the human and environmental rights of the very communities whose development they purport to support,” said Inverarity. “The global accountability system for these harms currently has limited avenues for justice and high barriers to success. I’m grateful to have this opportunity to support these diverse communities, but they represent only the tip of the iceberg.”