Briefing Paper for the International Court of Justice
Topic: Advisory Opinion on International Corporate Environmental Accountability and Responsibility
On April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico sending an estimated 4.9 million barrels of crude oil deep into the water. Over the course of the following three months oil continued to spill into the Gulf increasing the level of environmental damage with each passing day. During this time the critical public raised an integral question; who should be held accountable for the extensive environmental damage?
The explosion is the world’s largest man-made environmental disaster and the question over who is responsible for its consequences is crucial. The debate over accountability has taken on a distinctly corporate air. Most commonly the disaster is known as the “BP oil disaster”, which intrinsicallyplaces ownership of the crisis with them. Does BP’s ownership over the explosion also require them to be held accountable for neutralizing the negative after-effects of the disaster?
While the BP disaster received widespread media coverage, environmental damage incurred by corporations remains common around the world. For example, the British-based raw materials company, Trafigura, came under fire in 2006 for illegally dumping toxic waste off the coast of Côte d'Ivoire. In this case, the company denied the allegations and fought a tough legal battle to prevent any media coverage of the incident. Unlike the recent BP disaster, corporate compensation was not even announced until three years later. When a corporation decides to deny or dodge accountability, who should challenge them?
The International Court of Justice will produce an Advisory Opinion on International Corporate Environmental Accountability and Responsibility. The Court should provide guidance in order to help the international community determine a common set of standards that outline corporate responsibility for rogue disasters, as well as assessing environmental damage. The Advisory Opinion will include, but is not limited to, answering the following four questions:
1. What level of environmental damage constitutes a situation that requires corporate accountability?
2. To what extent should corporations be held accountable – or should this fluctuate on a case-by-case basis?
3. For how long should the corporation be held accountable? More specifically, at what point should the corporation be no longer responsible for the situation?
4. Who should hold the corporations accountable – regardless of the level of accountability? Similarly, who should set the terms of said accountability? (Examples: The nation state, the international community, the UN, etc.)