Corrupt at Its Core: How Law Failed the Victims of Waste Dumping in Cote d' Ivoire

摘要

The Trafigura saga in Abidjan highlights the implicit corruption inherent in the international legal system that facilitates global trade divorced from human rights accountability. It reveals a pernicious economic logic which insists that "citizens of developing nations have a low opportunity cost in hazardous wastes." This sentiment rests on the premise that because poor people in developed countries do not enjoy an abundance of material goods and because they tend to die at a younger age, their loss from exposure to hazardous substances is of a lesser magnitude than the loss experienced in developed countries where people live longer and enjoy a higher standard of living. While the Abidjan catastrophe is particularly egregious, it was in many ways the logical outgrowth of the legal regime in which it occurred. International law narrows legal responsibility all along the decision chain in a fashion that is structured to avoid corporate responsibility for human rights violations.