Civil Action Law Assignment
w assignment
Introduction
Corporate Social Responsibility issues in today’s modern day business environment are one of the most controversial topics affecting firm’s reputation when operating in any industries.
This essay question will be looking at Environmental and CSR issues in the context of the film A Civil Action.
Part A
Environmental law is the important part of government regulation and it deals with pollution or contamination problems. In our case contamination is found within the walls of the factory that was owned by W.R. Grace & Co. Company was using hazardous substances and it has legal duty of care for waste: they had to be disposed or recovered (Business Gateway, 2009). But company failed to do that and all waste was poured out into the water. Unfortunately those burdensome substances negatively affected health of large number of people including workers of the factory, their families and neighbors who lived in the Woburn, Massachusetts. “Ingestion” occurred as people were drinking this polluted water and they were using it for cooking. That region was characterized by large number of illnesses and sick people. Unfortunately contaminated water became the reason of death of children, who died from leukemia. According to general obligation law to environmental contamination caused by businesses, company must pay compensation if its manufacturing processes resulted in contamination and this pollution in its turn caused the personal injury or property damage. (Nelson, 2006) But in our case exposure of hazardous substances in the water resulted in deaths of children and there was no amount of money that can revive and return them to their parents. But someone had to take responsibility of it. The parents sued company as it was legally liable for pollution and plaintiffs tried to prove that defendants knew their operations would cause pollution. “Personal injury and property damage resulting from air, water and soil pollution are referred to as
Introduction
Corporate Social Responsibility issues in today’s modern day business environment are one of the most controversial topics affecting firm’s reputation when operating in any industries.
This essay question will be looking at Environmental and CSR issues in the context of the film A Civil Action.
Part A
Environmental law is the important part of government regulation and it deals with pollution or contamination problems. In our case contamination is found within the walls of the factory that was owned by W.R. Grace & Co. Company was using hazardous substances and it has legal duty of care for waste: they had to be disposed or recovered (Business Gateway, 2009). But company failed to do that and all waste was poured out into the water. Unfortunately those burdensome substances negatively affected health of large number of people including workers of the factory, their families and neighbors who lived in the Woburn, Massachusetts. “Ingestion” occurred as people were drinking this polluted water and they were using it for cooking. That region was characterized by large number of illnesses and sick people. Unfortunately contaminated water became the reason of death of children, who died from leukemia. According to general obligation law to environmental contamination caused by businesses, company must pay compensation if its manufacturing processes resulted in contamination and this pollution in its turn caused the personal injury or property damage. (Nelson, 2006) But in our case exposure of hazardous substances in the water resulted in deaths of children and there was no amount of money that can revive and return them to their parents. But someone had to take responsibility of it. The parents sued company as it was legally liable for pollution and plaintiffs tried to prove that defendants knew their operations would cause pollution. “Personal injury and property damage resulting from air, water and soil pollution are referred to as
References: Business Gateway [online] Available at: http://www.bgateway.com/bdotg/action/detail?type=RESOURCES&itemId=1074461230&site=202&r.s=e&r.l1=1073858799&r.lc=en&r.l3=1074458604&r.l2=1073877897&r.i=1074460885&r.t=RESOURCES Reference for business [online] Available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/corporatesocialresponsibility Environmental Law and Business - duties http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/encyclopedia/Ent-Fac/Environmental-Law-and-Business.html#ixzz15U1ZakyO Nelson B.L., 2006. Law and ethics in global business. Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon.