Compliance, Enforcement & Litigation
Both treaties and contracts rely on diligent and mindful legal management, enforcement practices, and the ability to skilfully stand litigation.
As experienced advisors, we at Atlas have worked closely with governments on contract implementation and treaty non-compliance procedures, as well as with our public, private, and corporate clients on all manner of issues concerning contractual compliance, enforcement, and litigation.
» ERPA Compliance
Emission Reduction Purchase Agreements (ERPAs) are not usually one-off sale and delivery agreements. Instead, they span multiple contract phases, typically feature a wide range of rights and obligations, and often involve long lists of actors, actions, notifications, and legal assessments in order to guarantee as smooth an implementation and enforcement of the contract as possible.
At Atlas, we assist ERPA Parties and contract associates at all levels of this sort of contract compliance and follow-up, from inception up to termination:- Helping to identify responsibilities and rights for our clients and chart them as an easy-to-apply contract compliance roadmap.
- Preparing sets of tailor-made compliance tools to address project-specific rules and regulations.
- Assessing contract deliverables and contract compliance at all stages of the agreement.
- Monitoring early warning signs for default and other violation issues.
- Allowing our clients to anticipate and resolve challenges at a minimum cost ratio in time, energy, and money.
» ERPA Enforcement and Litigation
Emission Reduction Purchase Agreements (ERPAs) usually detail what happens when a contract under-performs, particularly when this under-performance is linked to an event of default.
However, identifying what constitutes an under-performance or an event of default may not always be clear from the content of the agreement itself. Furthermore, contractual parties are often not familiar with the consequences of any “secondary” or enforcement procedures whether specified or not within the contract, nor with their particular options, obligations, and associated risks - from compensation to contract termination. Atlas provides comprehensive advice on the enforcement of ERPAs and related legal documents, working closely with our clients to determine their best course of action and to:- Prepare default and termination notices.
- Defend against undue default notices.
- Lead or mediate dispute and settlement negotiations.
We are committed to assisting our clients for the duration of their arbitration and court procedures, including injunction procedures and other multi-stage legal manoeuvres.
» State Non-Compliance
Multilateral environmental treaties regularly contain a monitoring scheme and, in connection with this, an outline of consequences for non-compliance.
Such schemes are usually a hybrid of technical and diplomatic advice, as well as quasi-judicial decision-making. The Compliance Committee of the Kyoto Protocol, for instance, has a facilitative branch alongside an enforcement branch with the enforcement branch exercising the power to suspend countries from engaging in any flexible emissions trading mechanisms if they are found to be non-compliant.
Atlas is experienced with advising governments regarding these monitoring schemes, examining and reporting on the potential for non-compliance, and representing clients, when appropriate, in front of the Compliance Committee of the Kyoto Protocol and other regulatory bodies.