Their Day in Court

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• Reader Comments (3)

  Page 1 of 1 pages

  One more instance of big corporations taking advantage of countries in need of investments and people in need of jobs.Big corporations protected by our laws and given free rein by trade agreements. For what? For the enrichment of the corrupt national leaders that give away the countriy’s natural resources, and the health and life of needy workers. All for one dollar per day.What a bargain!

  Posted by pablo on Aug 11, 2003 at 12:21 PM

  This article points out another example of the consequences of allowing corporations to amass great wealth from tax breaks, etc. Their control of resources permits them to set-up where conditions are most favorable, where they can operate with comparative impunity, and they often relocate very quickly when problems catch up with them. My concern is for the injured workers and affected neighbors. A similar situation exists where I live.

  Posted by Dean Brooks on Aug 18, 2003 at 9:05 PM

  The largest and wealthiest corporations in the world have their home-base in the United States, Canada, Europe and Japan. These corporations spend tens of millions of dollars each year in legal fees to block the growing number of transnational lawsuits that are being brought by workers, families and the poor against corporations. In their defence, the corporations use the century-old common law doctrine of forum non conveniens (inconvenient forum)—they are almost always successful in stopping the lawsuits. Nicaragua responded by passing a law that allows its citizens to sue the foreign corporations that manufactured pesticides containing DBCP in Nicaraguan courts. The US corporations that are affected by these lawsuits also spend millions each year to pay lobbyists who push their agenda in Washington. These lobbyists have persuaded the US government to put pressure on Nicaragua to change their laws. Thus, political, economic and legal power is used by the wealthiest corporations of the world to maintain a system that perpetuates inequality and injustice. More information about the DBCP cases and related transnational cases can be found in my article published in the Texas International Law Journal called Towards Transnational Corporate Accountability in the Global Economy: Challenging the Doctrine of Forum Non Conveniens in Re: Union Carbide, Alfaro, Sequihua and Aguinda. Vol 36, No. 2, Spring 2001. 

  Posted by Malcolm Rogge on Aug 29, 2003 at 9:23 AM

  Page 1 of 1 pages

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