In this “Just Environments” essay, Ebunoluwa Popoola examines the transfer of environmental lawsuits from Nigerian courts to European ones as a means of circumventing legal obstacles at the national level. Communities in the Niger Delta face multiple barriers when suing multinational oil companies in Nigerian courts, in part because of high costs, delays, and a restrictive interpretation of legal standing. Moving these cases to foreign jurisdictions, where the multinational companies are based, has been one avenue through which environmental justice has been achieved.
Ebunoluwa O. Popoola
Ebunoluwa O. Popoola is a law lecturer at Ameer Shehu Idris College of Advanced Studies (an affiliate of Ahmadu Bello University), Zaria, Nigeria. She holds a PhD in public law from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria.
Her research areas are environmental law and human rights, international human rights law, sanitation in rural and urban communities, and grassroots struggles centered on environmental injustices in Nigeria and South Africa. Popoola is a Next Generation Social Sciences in Africa fellow and, as part of her PhD research, she conducted fieldwork research among industrial-pollution impacted communities in Nigeria and South Africa. Her work has been published in Anthropology Southern Africa, Ahmadu Bello University Journal of Commercial Law, and the Journal of the Social Sciences (University of Maiduguri), among other venues.
Popoola also works as an attorney in Zaria, Nigeria, and represents rural communities faced with land-grabbing and illegal evictions.
Her research areas are environmental law and human rights, international human rights law, sanitation in rural and urban communities, and grassroots struggles centered on environmental injustices in Nigeria and South Africa. Popoola is a Next Generation Social Sciences in Africa fellow and, as part of her PhD research, she conducted fieldwork research among industrial-pollution impacted communities in Nigeria and South Africa. Her work has been published in Anthropology Southern Africa, Ahmadu Bello University Journal of Commercial Law, and the Journal of the Social Sciences (University of Maiduguri), among other venues.
Popoola also works as an attorney in Zaria, Nigeria, and represents rural communities faced with land-grabbing and illegal evictions.