What is the case of Union Carbide Corporation v. Union of India (1989)?
What we should know about a legal dispute that arose from the 1984 Bhopal disaster, one of the worst industrial accidents in history?
The Union Carbide Corporation v. Union of India (1989) case was a legal dispute that arose from the 1984 Bhopal disaster, one of the worst industrial accidents in history. On December 3, 1984, a gas leak at a pesticide plant owned and operated by Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL), a subsidiary of the American-based Union Carbide Corporation (UCC), released a toxic cloud of methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas into the surrounding community in Bhopal, India. The gas leak killed thousands of people and injured hundreds of thousands more.
The Indian government filed a lawsuit against UCC in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, seeking damages for the victims of the disaster and cleanup costs. UCC argued that the case should be heard in India, where UCIL was incorporated and the accident occurred. The district court agreed and dismissed the case.