First, it points out that criminal prosecutions of corporations are rare, but not unheard of. California prosecutors charged PG&E with manslaughter for its role in the deadly Camp Fire that leveled the town of Paradise in 2018. And federal prosecutors charged BP with manslaughter following the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster. In both cases, the companies pleaded guilty and paid billions in fines and penalties.
Guyora Binder, a distinguished professor of law at the University at Buffalo, said the paper was “exciting, imaginative and insightful in a number of important ways,” but he also advised caution. “An obstacle to finding causal responsibility is when death results from diffuse actions of multiple actors. It’s a little reminiscent of the issues with tobacco and opioids where you have multiple manufacturers and you can’t trace which one contributed to which death.
Nonetheless, the paper has gotten noticed in the environmental community. Kassie Siegal, director of the climate law institute at the Center for Biological Diversity told, “The case is compelling that fossil fuel companies’ actions meet the legal definition of homicide. The paper lays that out clearly. I think it’s absolutely brilliant.
“Today, however, FFCs remain exceptionally powerful, profitable, and lethal, and they are acting as though they are above the law. As a result, they are far from pursuing remedies to the harms they are causing, from which prosecutors are sworn to protect the public. If we want FFCs to take the climate related harms they cause seriously, they must face at least the prospect of incurring legal consequences commensurate with the gravity of those harms.
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