Two recent court cases in vastly different corners of the globe prove the need to monitor Western multinationals in developing countries.
Nigeria: A Nigerian court on Friday ordered Royal Dutch Shell PLC to pay southern communities $1.5 billion (1.2 billion euros) in compensation for environmental pollution and degradation in the oil-rich Niger Delta.
Argentina: Ford Motor Company has been charged in an Argentine court with playing a direct part in the illegal detention, torture and “disappearances” of its own workers under the dictatorship that ruled the South American country from 1976 to 1983. The US automaker is accused in both a criminal and a civil lawsuit filed this week of carrying out “management terrorism” under the military regime in order to suppress worker militancy at its Argentine production plants.