4 - Commerce and human rights
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
Summary
Introduction
In the year of this book's publication, the worst corporate calamity of modern times will mark its twenty-fifth anniversary. Around midnight on 2–3 December 1984, a dense cloud of 40 tons of highly poisonous methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas drenched the Indian city of Bhopal, after a catastrophic chemical reaction occurred in a holding tank at the nearby pesticide plant operated by the Indian subsidiary of the US firm Union Carbide. More than 3,000 people died in the immediate aftermath, according to official figures (though many civil society organisations put the figure at almost three times that number), and more than 50,000 people were permanently disabled. In the following weeks a further 15,000 died as a direct consequence of the leak, and it has been estimated that since then approximately the same number have died for reasons that included exposure to the gas, drinking contaminated water or consuming produce from contaminated soil. Recent reports on the medical consequences of the disaster show an intergenerational impact with clear evidence of birth and developmental abnormalities that correlate to those who, though exposed to the gas, survived, and have since had children.
Despite the intense worldwide media interest in the tragedy, and the string of court cases it spawned, it remains unclear precisely what caused the water to enter the holding tank that set off the chain of events leading to the gas leak, but many believe it was due to the chronic disrepair of the plant's infrastructure, while the company claims it might have been the work of a saboteur.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Civilising GlobalisationHuman Rights and the Global Economy, pp. 145 - 203Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009
References
, Clouds of Injustice: Bhopal Disaster 20 Years On (London: Amnesty International UK, 2004)Google Scholar
, , , , and , ‘Methyl Isocyanate Exposure and Growth Patterns of Adolescents in Bhopal’ (2003) 290(14) Journal of the American Medical Association1856, at 1857CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, Union Carbide's former Vice-President of Health, Safety and Environmental Programs, ‘Union Carbide: Disaster at Bhopal’, in (ed.), Crisis Response: Inside Stories on Managing Image under Siege (Detroit: Visible Ink Press, 1993), p. 367Google Scholar
and , ‘From Talk to Walk: The Emergence of Human Rights Responsibilities for Corporations at International Law’ (2004) 44 Virginia Journal of International Law931, at 966–93Google Scholar
, ‘IBM's Sales to the Nazis: Assessing the Culpability’, New York Times (7 March 2001), at p. E8Google Scholar
, ‘The Amorality of Profit: Transnational Corporations and Human Rights’ (2002) 20 Berkeley Journal of International Law45Google Scholar
and , Developing Country Multinationals: South–South Investments Comes of Age, OECD Development Centre, Working Paper No. 257 (December 2006)Google Scholar
, World Investment Report 2008: Transnational Corporations and the Infrastructure Challenge (New York and Geneva: UN, 2008), p. 37, at p. 272Google Scholar
, ‘Privatising Human Rights: What Happens to a State's Human Rights Duties when Services are Privatised?’ (2004) 5 Melbourne Journal of International Law133Google Scholar
's excellent case-study analyses of the human rights risks related to the establishment and delivery of public–private partnerships: Law, Infrastructure and Human Rights (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), especially chapter 3CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, ‘Agents of Justice’, in (ed.), Global Responsibilities: Who Must Deliver on Human Rights? (New York: Routledge, 2005), p. 50Google Scholar
, ‘Foreword’, in Business Leaders Initiative on Human Rights, Report 3: Towards a ‘Common Framework’ on Business and Human Rights: Identifying Components (London: BLIHR, 2006), p. 1Google Scholar
, ‘Post Conflict Development – Successful Companies Learn from Wider Debates’, Ethical Corporation, 13 May 2008Google Scholar
, Companies, International Trade and Human Rights (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), p. 44CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, ‘Chevron Lawyers Indicted in Ecuador’, The Legal Intelligences, 16 September 2008, p. 4Google Scholar
and , ‘Microsoft Shuts Blog's Site after Complaints by Beijing’, New York Times, 6 January 2006Google Scholar
, ‘The China Dilemma: Internet Sponsorship and Corporate Responsibility’ (2009) 4 Asian Journal of Comparative Law (online, article 3), p. 3CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, ‘Corporate Complicity in Internet Censorship in China: Who Cares for the Global Compact or the Global Online Freedom Act?’ (2007) 39 George Washington International Law Review255Google Scholar
, Why Globalization Works (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2004), pp. 221–6Google Scholar
(ed.), Economics: Making Sense of the Modern Economy (London: The Economist; Profile Books, 2nd edn 2006), pp. 26–7
, Presidents, Parties and the State (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006), p. 156Google Scholar
, Corporate Citizenship: Exploring the New Possibilities, Royal Institute of International Affairs, Conference Report, July 2001, p. 4Google Scholar
, Foreign Direct Investment for Development: Maximising Benefits, Minimising Costs (Paris: OECD, 2002), p. 5Google Scholar
, Regional Economic Outlook: Sub-Saharan Africa (Washington, DC: International Monetary Fund, 2008)Google Scholar
, ‘Strategy & Management: The Equator Principles: A Toddler Finds its Feet, but Still Takes an Occasional Tumble’, Ethical Corporation, 14 November 2007Google Scholar
, ‘Human Rights, Risks, and New Strategies for Global Investment’ (2006) 9(3) Journal of International Economic Law657 (emphasis added)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, Human Rights on the Line: The Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan Pipeline Project (London: Amnesty International UK, 2003)Google Scholar
, Contracting Out of Human Rights: The Chad–Cameroon Pipeline Project (London: Amnesty International UK, 2005)Google Scholar
and , ‘Controversial US Goldmine a Law unto Itself’, Sydney Morning Herald, 28 December 2005, p. 13Google Scholar
(ed.), Human Rights in Australian Law: Principles, Practice and Potential (Leichhardt, NSW: The Federation Press, 1998), p. 2
, ‘The Moral Dimension of Corporate Accountability’, in (ed.), Global Responsibilities: Who Must Deliver on Human Rights? (New York: Routledge, 2005), p. 233Google Scholar
, ‘Concepts and Definitions of CSR and Corporate Sustainability: Between Agency and Communion’ (2003) 44 Journal of Business Ethics95, at 96CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, ‘The History, Variations, Impact and Future of Self-Regulation’, in (ed.), Corporate Social Responsibility: The Corporate Governance of the 21st Century (The Hague: Kluwer Law International, 2005), p. 367Google Scholar
and , Company Codes of Conduct and International Standards: An Analytical Comparison (Part I) (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2003), p. 2Google Scholar
, ‘Human Rights: The Emerging Norm of Corporate Social Responsibility’ (2001–2) 76 Tulane Law Review1431, at 1433Google Scholar
Corporate Responsibility: Managing Risks and Creating Value (Canberra: Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services, 2006), at para. 4.76
, ‘The Responsible Company’, in The World in 2008 (London: The Economist, 2007), p. 143Google Scholar
and , The Economy of Esteem: An Essay on Civil and Political Society (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), pp. 4–5CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, and (eds.), Corporate Social Responsibility: Readings and Cases in a Global Context (New York: Routledge, 2008), p. 3, at p. 13
, ‘The Normative Grounding of the Corporate Social Responsibility: A Human Rights Approach’, in , and (eds.), The New Corporate Accountability: Corporate Social Responsibility and the Law (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), p. 530Google Scholar
, ‘The Central Role of Lawyers in Managing, Minimizing, and Responding to Responsibility Risks – A US Perspective’, in Mullerat, Corporate Social Responsibility, p. 318
and , ‘Engage, Embed, and Embellish: Theory versus Practice in the Corporate Social Responsibility Movement’ (2005–6) 31 Journal of Corporation Law1, at 34Google Scholar
, ‘Human Rights as Legally Binding or Merely Relevant?’, in and (eds.), Commercial Law and Human Rights (Aldershot: Ashgate Dartmouth, 2002), p. 25Google Scholar
, ‘The “Rule of Law” in Development Assistance: Past, Present and Future’, in and (eds.), The New Law and Economic Development: A Critical Appraisal (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006), p. 74 at pp. 84–6CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, Multinational Enterprises and the Law, 2nd edn (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2007), pp. 514–18CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, ‘Acting Extraterritorially To Tame Multinational Corporations for Human Rights Violations: Who Should “Bell the Cat”?’ (2004) 5 Melbourne Journal of International Law37Google Scholar
, ‘Extraterritorial Corporate Criminal Liability: A Remedy for Human Rights Violations?’ (2006) 20 St. John's Journal of Legal Commentary287, at 291Google Scholar
, ‘Lohengrin Revealed: The Implications of Sosa v. Alvarez-Machain for Human Rights Litigation Pursuant to the Alien Tort Claims Act’ (2006) 28 Loyola of Los Angeles International and Comparative Law Review393Google Scholar
, ‘Freeport in West Papua: Bringing Corporations to Account for the International Human Rights Abuses under Australian Criminal and Tort Law’ (2005) 31 Monash University Law Review95Google Scholar
, ‘A Look at Corporate Code of Conduct Legislation’ (2004) 33 Common Law World Review222CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, ‘Towards Transnational Corporate Accountability in the Global Economy: Challenging the Doctrine on Forum Non Conveniens in In re: Union Carbide, Alfaro, Sequihua, and Aguinda’ (2001) 36 Texas International Law Journal299Google Scholar
, Corporations and Transnational Human Rights Litigation (Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2004), p. 150Google Scholar
, ‘The Unocal Settlement: Implications for the Developing Law on Corporate Complicity in Human Rights Abuses’ (2005) 13(1) Human Rights Brief14Google Scholar
et al., International Human Rights Litigation in US Courts (Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff, 2008 (2nd edn)), pp. 309–33CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(ed.), Effective Strategies for Protecting Human Rights: Economic Sanctions, Use of National Courts and International Fora and Coercive Power (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2001), p. 263
, ‘Separating Myth from Reality about Corporate Responsibility Litigation’ (2004) 7 Journal of International Economic Law263CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and , ‘The Landmark Free-Speech Case That Wasn't: The Nike v. Kasky Story’ (2004) 54 Case Western Reserve Law Review965Google Scholar
and , ‘The UN Human Rights Norms for Corporations: The Private Implications of Public International Law’ (2006) 6 Human Rights Law Review447, at 447–8CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and , ‘From Talk to Walk: The Emergence of Human Rights Responsibilities for Corporations at International Law’ (2004) 44 Virginia Journal of International Law931, at 960–93Google Scholar
, ‘Norms on the Responsibilities of Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises with Regard to Human Rights’ (2003) 97 American Journal of International Law901Google Scholar
, and , ‘The Politics of Corporate Social Responsibility: Reflections on the United Nations Human Rights Norms for Corporations’ (2007) 25 Company and Securities Law Journal30Google Scholar
and , ‘Trading and Aiding Human Rights: Corporations in the Global Economy’ (2007) 4 Nordic Journal of Human Rights353Google Scholar
, Corporate Complicity and Legal Accountability (Geneva: International Commission of Jurists, 2008)Google Scholar
, ‘Business and Human Rights: Treaty Road Not Travelled’, Ethical Corporation, 6 May 2008Google Scholar
, ‘Corporations and Human Rights: A Theory of Legal Responsibility’ (2001) 111 Yale Law Journal443, at 477–85CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, ‘Multinational Corporations, Transnational Law: The United Nations’ Norms on the Responsibilities of Transnational Corporations as a Harbinger of Corporate Social Responsibility in International Law' (2006) 37 Columbia Human Rights Law Review287, at 293, and further 356–88Google Scholar
, ‘Business and Human Rights: One Step at a Time’, Ethical Corporation, 5 October 2007Google Scholar
, ‘Business and Human Rights – A Personal Account from the Front Line’, Ethical Corporation, 11 February 2008Google Scholar
, ‘The Board as a Path toward Corporate Social Responsibility’, in et al. (eds.), The New Corporate Accountability, p. 280