I. INTRODUCTION

1. In the history of international law, there is probably no case of a denial of justice more clearly established or more egregious than the Lago Agrio Litigation. It involved Plaintiffs’ lawyers willing to falsify evidence and ghostwrite court documents as ostensible justification for grossly inflated damages, the President of the country willing to intervene in the litigation to ensure a favorable result for the Plaintiffs, and corrupt court officers willing to sell justice. These cynical abuses flourished in the context of pervasive efforts of a government seeking generally to undermine the independence of the courts and bend them to its will. The result was an unprecedented US$9.5 billion Judgment issued and affirmed by judges who were anything but impartial. That Judgment has ever since been praised, and its enforcement encouraged and abetted, by national officials who know perfectly well that it is fraudulent, yet refuse to investigate or punish the fraud and corruption. Moreover, Ecuador argues that its appellate courts had no power to review the Judgment for fraud or corruption—although they did have the power to affirm it, certify it as enforceable, and give it the imprimatur of legitimacy, regardless of this judicial misconduct. Everything about the Judgment and its affirmance shocks the conscience and surprises a judicial sense of propriety.