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Tully, Stephen --- "‘Never Say Never Jurisprudence’: Comparative Approaches to Corporate Responsibility under the Law of Torts" [2005] ELECD 201; in Tully, Stephen (ed), "Research Handbook on Corporate Legal Responsibility" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2005)

Book Title: Research Handbook on Corporate Legal Responsibility

Editor(s): Tully, Stephen

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781843768203

Section: Chapter 7

Section Title: ‘Never Say Never Jurisprudence’: Comparative Approaches to Corporate Responsibility under the Law of Torts

Author(s): Tully, Stephen

Number of pages: 22

Extract:

7 `Never say never jurisprudence':
comparative approaches to corporate
responsibility under the law of torts
Stephen Tully



Introduction
This chapter examines corporate responsibility under the law of torts with
particular reference to the prospective liability of parent corporations for
national and international legal violations committed by their overseas
subsidiaries. The next section reviews fundamental principles of tort law
within the North American, European and Australian jurisdictions and illus-
trates their application to corporations. The following section furthers this
comparative approach by reference to the doctrine of forum non conveniens to
demonstrate the importance of the choice of forum for corporate responsibil-
ity. The subsequent section discusses the choice of applicable law in conduct-
ing transnational litigation against corporations, including the implications of
the recent Sosa decision of the US Supreme Court under the Alien Tort Claims
Act. The purpose of reviewing these jurisprudential developments is to show
how the operation of the burden of proof can disadvantage claimants and how
the application of legal doctrines (such as act of state, sovereign immunity and
forum non conveniens) can be manipulated to commercial advantage.
Together these arguments support the overall theme that corporate legal
responsibility can be shielded by governmental responsibility, thus enabling
corporations to evade true accountability. The final section concludes.

Tort law as a mechanism for corporate responsibility
Tort law allows injured parties to commence actions against wrongdoers
(known as tortfeasors) claiming damages for injuries caused by the commis-
sion of a civil wrong. There are several preconditions to initiating ...