Inbrief

A human rights lawsuit against the Royal Dutch/Shell Group will go ahead after a ruling last month by a US district court rejected the oil company’s appeal to dismiss the case. The case, which is being brought by the Washington-based Earthrights International and the New- York based Center for Constitutional Rights, alleges that Shell, operating directly and through Shell Nigeria, colluded with the Nigerian government in human rights abuses in the mid-1990s. The ruling means that the case will move to the discovery phase in which the parties can try to agree a settlement before the case goes to trial.