記事
[audio] Globalising justice
This week marks the 25th anniversary of the Bhopal disaster...How do we prevent and compensate for the harm that sometimes comes with globalisation...David Kinley[:] "[Bhopal] was a watershed for the notion that corporations can have responsibilities beyond simply their immediate commercial objectives...Union Carbide…tried to avoid responsibility...argu[ing] not to have the case held in American courts...[I]t is the gap between host states and home states that are so often the problem in trying to bring to account corporations...[I]f the home state ha[s] adequate safety and human rights standards, they need not…extend...beyond the jurisdictional boundaries of that country...[A] phrase that many corporations now coin which is 'beyond compliance'…they do seek to above and beyond what is required by law…because they see that as being a good corporate citizen...[W]e're now seeing the emergence of huge corporations based on the developing world...Some of those actually have interestingly, been leaders in corporate social responsibility." [refers to Shell, Union Carbide (part of Dow), Chevron, Unocal (part of Chevron), TATA group, Yahoo, Google, Microsoft]