The MARIANA case
On 14 November 2025, the High Court of England and Wales handed down judgment in the largest environmental mass tort in UK history: the group claim by more than 600,000 Brazilian victims of the 2015 collapse of the Fundão tailings dam against the mining giant BHP Group. In Município de Mariana v BHP Group, the Court found BHP (through its UK and Australian-listed parent companies) liable on both strict liability and negligence grounds under Brazilian law. This ruling is not only a landmark for the hundreds of thousands of individuals affected by the disaster; it also serves as a stress test for existing tort doctrines governing parent–subsidiary liability … (more)
Panagiota Kotzamani, Parent liability after Mariana v BHP: control, vigilance, and the need for structural reform, Legal Studies. Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 June 2026.
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