Occasionally I saw this news “Justices Take Up Battle Over Exxon Valdez” http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/28/washington/28scotus.html?
This 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill was caused by the negligence of the ship’s captain, Joseph J. Hazelwood, who company officials left in charge of the ship despite having been informed that he was an alcoholic who had resumed drinking.
My first concern is what a corporation can do to protect itself from employees who violate explicit company policy, like a no-drinking rule....
My second point is that it make sense to hold this corporations criminally responsible eventhrough it is their employee commited the crime. when bad things happen, someone needs to be punished. We have the same intuition about punishing people who commit crimes.
But should the additional $2.5 billion in punitive damages be approved ? The company has been punished enough by $3.4 billion in criminal fines, cleanup costs and compensation payments. What total criminal fines the company should pay? Is there any standard can be hold to decide the cost of environment pollution?
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