Comparative Study of Duty of Care (Devoir De Vigilance) in Upstream Petroleum Projects

Abstract

Present memoire is a comparative study that tries to shed light on the notion of duty of care or as French say, devoir de vigilance of multinationals in their foreign direct investments; it draws a general doctrinal normative map of the duty of care and describes to what extent the two legal systems of France and the United Kingdom resemble or differ in their perspective towards this notion. It explains that notion universally consists of two pillars (or sub-regimes): first the duty to conduct and maintain due diligence in order to address, mitigate and prevent risks of an investment project and second, the obligation to redress and amend damages if the endeavors of due diligence fail. Doing that, it uses typical facts of an upstream petroleum project, as application of the notion of duty of care is, in many aspects, heavily fact-based, including in its assessment of the concept of control that plays a leading role in connecting default and liability of the operating entity and its principal (i.e. the multinational).