[Updated: A knowledgeable source has told me that in fact the AFP report referenced below was incorrect and that the Ecuadoran Supreme Court has made no decision on the case one way or the other. Stay tuned!]

There are two developments to note in Ecuador on the Lago Agrio case.

First, the appellate court in Sucumbios rejected Chevron’s latest bid to block enforcement of the Ecuadoran judgment. The court again reiterated that Chevron’s failure to post the require appellate bond precluded a stay, and it refused to give preclusive effect to the awards of the BIT tribunal, as the Lago Agrio plaintiffs were not parties to the BIT proceedings.

Also, AFP is reporting that Ecuador’s Supreme Court has agreed to hear Chevron’s appeal from the Lago Agrio judgment. I am trying to determine exactly what this means as a matter of Ecuadoran procedure. I understand that the Court’s docket is discretionary, like the docket of the US Supreme Court. However, according to Pablo Fajardo, one of the Lago Agrio plaintiffs’ lawyers, the Court still must “ratify the admissibility” of the appeal before it is heard on the merits. So it is not exactly clear to me what the Ecuadoran court decided.

Photo credit: Julien Gomba (license)