Some international law aspects of the Bhopal disaster

This article explores certain international law aspects of the Bhopal disaster, namely the principles and rules of international law establishing international accountability for environmental damage; the criteria for determining the liability of the Union Carbide Company (U.S.A.) for the Bhopal disaster; the criteria for determining compensation; and the international remedies available to the Indian government in the event that Bhopal victims fail to get justice within the Indian court system. The article discusses two applicable sets of proposed international standards--the U.N. Draft Code of Conduct on Transnational Corporations, and the U.N. International Law Commission's Draft on International Liability for Injurious Consequences Arising out of Acts Not Prohibited by International Law. The scattered 'hard' and 'soft' jurisprudence of international environmental law establishes liability and accountability for environmental hazards. It makes both state and non-state entities liable to pay compensation to the victims of environmental pollution. This jurisprudence, in addition to domestic law analogies, can influence Indian courts in determining the amount of damages payable to the victims of the Bhopal disaster. The authors conclude that the Bhopal disaster has demonstrated that enforceable international standards are clearly and urgently needed for hazardous industries, especially those operating in developing countries. Such standards would eliminate, or at least narrow, the gap between standards prevailing in the developed countries and those in the Third World. Even without enforcement, international standards could provide norms for measuring the performance of individual companies engaged in hazardous activities such as the manufacture of MIC at Bhopal.