It really is a David and Goliath story. The kind that brings hope for small remote communities who are trying to protect their environment against large corporations who extract resources from the earth.

When Chilekwa Mumba was emailing lawyers and social activists in 2015 looking for help for Zambian villagers being harmed by the world’s largest open pit copper mine, he probably wasn’t thinking about changing the world.

But he did, with the aid of a UK legal firm, making it possible for many other communities who suffer harm caused by subsidiaries of UK firms to hold those firms accountable in British courts. In a landmark judgment in 2019, the UK Supreme Court held that British companies can be held liable for how subsidiary-run operations cause environmental damage in another country.