Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Law & Policy

Publication Date

4-2018

Page Number

172

Keywords

procedural justice, environmental violations, health consequences, liability

Disciplines

Environmental Law | Law

Abstract

The large-scale physical and financial consequences of corporate environmental violations are undeniable. In 2015, for instance, Volkswagen was found to have installed software on some of its diesel models that allo\xed the cars to pass emissions tests while producing up to forty times more emissions than allowed. Aside from the obvious use of deceptive advertising and the financial harm suffered by Volkswagen investors and car owners (Chevs 2015: Greene and Foley 2015: Shah 2015), it has been estimated that these actions will cause sixy premature deaths, thirty-one cases of' chronic bronchitis, and thirty-four other cases of serious cardiac and respiratory illness in the United States (Chu 2015). Volkswagen's actions are not an isolated incident. On April 20, 2016, for instance. Mitsubishi Motors announced that it too had supplied inaccurate fuel consumption test data on 625,000 of its automobiles (Onyanga-Omara 2016). According to media accounts, tests on many other diesel car models demonstrated that many manufacturers had understated vehicle emissions (e.g., Carrington 2015). Cases like these are clear exam- pies of corporate environmental noncompliance and remind us of' how little scholars know about corporate motivations and environmental offending.

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