Were Tata to take responsibility for organizing the clean-up via voluntary corporate contributions to a designated fund, a precedent would be set whereby the environmental health of a community becomes the responsibility of optional charity work, rather than a legal right to be protected against unsafe practices of multi-national corporations. By allowing liability to be evaded in a disaster of the magnitude of the Bhopal Gas Leak of 1984, a dangerous precedent is set for the future of corporate accountability.
If Dow is allowed to escape liability India, while accepting the analogous liability in America, a precedent will be set for corporations to expand internationally, while avoiding liability should their safety and environmental practices prove to be substandard.
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