"Corporations on Trial"

People and Power is presenting "Corporations on Trial," a five-part series on the many lawsuits against multi-national corporations. The series, on Al Jazeera English, begins today with "Dumping Ground," which examines "how ordinary residents of the Ivory Coast are taking on one of the world's largest oil traders." An interview with People & Power presenter and reporter, Juliana Ruhfus provides some background.

Why is it that countries where the doctrines of corporate law and the associated legal procedures are not well developed, are places where multinational corporations can sometimes act with impunity?

This is probably a problem which goes beyond the law. Many of the worst abuses take place in the world's poorest countries. These are often countries which generate most of their income from natural resource exploitation rather than manufacturing or services.

They have the least educated and least empowered populations as well as the fiercest concentration of economic and political power in the hands of small elites.

Consequently they usually post very high scores on corruption indices. This is a bad combination and easily exploited by deal-makers inside and outside the country.Why is there such a big number of cases involving US companies?

This is not necessarily due to the fact that US companies behave worse than others.

Indeed it can be argued that it is because the US has legislation which allows lawyers to bring such cases in the first place.

For example the Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA) allows cases to be brought in the US even if they involve US-registered companies committing abuses in other countries.

ATCA is a centuries old law which was originally created to bring pirates to justice when operating outside US waters.

Ironically it is now being used by lawyers to bring claims against US companies such as the Chiquita Brands fruit organisation – currently being sued for its involvement with illegal Colombian paramilitary organisations.

Check out previous blog posts on corporate social responsibility and the Alien Tort Statute: Pfizer Settles Medical Experimentation Case in Nigeria, Independent Review of Chiquita's Payments to Paramilitaries in Colombia, Book About Ken Saro-Wiwa.