Opinion ID: 2381510
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: public policy & the tort liability of multinational corporations in united states courts

Text: The abolition of forum non conveniens will further important public policy considerations by providing a check on the conduct of multinational corporations (MNCs). See Economic Approach, 22 Geo.Wash.J. Int'l L. & Econ. at 241. The misconduct of even a few multinational corporations can affect untold millions around the world. [12] For example, after the United States imposed a domestic ban on the sale of cancer-producing TRIS-treated children's sleepwear, American companies exported approximately 2.4 million pieces to Africa, Asia and South America. A similar pattern occurred when a ban was proposed for baby pacifiers that had been linked to choking deaths in infants. Hazardous Exports, supra, 14 Sw.U.L.Rev. at 82. These examples of indifference by some corporations towards children abroad are not unusual. [13] The allegations against Shell and Dow, if proven true, would not be unique, since production of many chemicals banned for domestic use has thereafter continued for foreign marketing. [14] Professor Thomas McGarity, a respected authority in the field of environmental law, explained: During the mid-1970s, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) began to restrict the use of some pesticides because of their environmental effects, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) established workplace exposure standards for toxic and hazardous substances in the manufacture of pesticides.... [I]t is clear that many pesticides that have been severely restricted in the United States are used without restriction in many Third World countries, with resulting harm to fieldworkers and the global environment. McGarity, Bhopal and the Export of Hazardous Technologies, 20 Tex.Int'l L.J. 333, 334 (1985) (citations omitted). By 1976, 29 percent, or 161 million pounds, of all the pesticides exported by the United States were either unregistered or banned for domestic use. McWilliams, Tom Sawyer's Apology: A Reevaluation of United States Pesticide Export Policy, 8 Hastings Int'l & Comp.L.Rev. 61, 61 & n. 4 (1984). It is estimated that these pesticides poison 750,000 people in developing countries each year, of which 22,500 die. Id. at 62. Some estimates place the death toll from the improper marketing of pesticides at 400,000 lives a year. Id. at 62 n. 7. Some United States multinational corporations will undoubtedly continue to endanger human life and the environment with such activities until the economic consequences of these actions are such that it becomes unprofitable to operate in this manner. At present, the tort laws of many third world countries are not yet developed. An Economic Approach, supra, 22 Geo. Wash.J.Int'l L. & Econ. at 222-23. Industrialization is occurring faster than the development of domestic infrastructures necessary to deal with the problems associated with industry. Exporting Hazardous Industries, supra, 20 Int'l L. & Pol. at 791. When a court dismisses a case against a United States multinational corporation, it often removes the most effective restraint on corporate misconduct. See An Economic Approach, supra, 22 Geo.Wash.J.Int'l L. & Econ. at 241. The doctrine of forum non conveniens is obsolete in a world in which markets are global and in which ecologists have documented the delicate balance of all life on this planet. The parochial perspective embodied in the doctrine of forum non conveniens enables corporations to evade legal control merely because they are transnational. This perspective ignores the reality that actions of our corporations affecting those abroad will also affect Texans. Although DBCP is banned from use within the United States, it and other similarly banned chemicals have been consumed by Texans eating foods imported from Costa Rica and elsewhere. See D. Weir & M. Schapiro, Circle of Poison 28-30, 77, 82-83 (1981). [15] In the absence of meaningful tort liability in the United States for their actions, some multinational corporations will continue to operate without adequate regard for the human and environmental costs of their actions. This result cannot be allowed to repeat itself for decades to come. As a matter of law and of public policy, the doctrine of forum non conveniens should be abolished. Accordingly, I concur.