ABSTRACT
This chapter turns the focus from fraud or mismanagement, and considers multinationals and their capacity to cause environmental damage and injury or death to their employees and the communities in which they operate. Multinationals have to operate through a complex corporate network. The first part of this chapter analyses the factors that induce the organizational choices of multinationals. The second part of the chapter analyses key cases on multinational companies that have sought to avoid liabilities for injury, death and damage caused by their activities. 'Limited liability may have enabled capital to be introduced into production because it enabled asset participating which enabled a clear valuation of shares and freed investors from the fear of unlimited liability. The introduction of holding companies altered any fairness or good policies behind limited liability'. The chapter concludes that groups of companies should be denied limited liability as this would focus managerial attention on ethical practices.
