NY Times - "Should Corporations Have More Leeway to Kill Than People Do?"

Bringing sHell to a 3rd World Near You

    Peter Weiss, a retired lawyer, and a current vice president of the Center for Constitutional Rights wrote an enlightening albeit somewhat dry article for the NY Times Opinions section on Politics, in which he enlightens the reader to consider the following: "Should Corporations Have More Leeway to Kill Than People Do". Though he formed his argument as a question, he does so to invoke the readers own morals and emotions. I feel as though this was a great tactic to subconsciously invest the reader while they consider his opinions. Mr. Weiss does spend much of the article just enumerating facts, making this article a little dry and difficult to read, he does so, however, in order to formulate his argument on solid ground. Towards the end of the article Mr. Weiss finally states his opinion as such:

    A decision affirming that Shell should go unpunished in the Niger Delta case would leave us with a Supreme Court that seems of two minds: in the words of Justice John Paul Steven’s dissent from Citizens United, it threatens “to undermine the integrity of elected institutions across the nation” by treating corporations as people to let them make unlimited political contributions, even as it treats corporations as if they are not people to immunize them from prosecution for the most grievous human rights violations."  

Stating that the potential effects of such a ruling could lead to "multinational corporations (particularly in mining and other extractive industries) [drawing] the lesson that it is now safer to forge alliances with autocratic regimes that have poor human rights records because they will not be judged culpable in the way individuals can be." 
    Although I whole-heartedly agree with Mr. Weiss' ultimate, yet slightly vague assumption that it is not fair, practical or legal (both by natural and constitutional law) to allow an entity to hold all the positive benefits of citizenship without little to any of the responsibilities of citizenship, I feel as though his argument was mild and unemotional considering the nature of this dilemma. If Shell is not held accountable for something as heinous and despicable as these war-crimes, the final result is the last nail in the coffin of human freedoms and rights, as a supreme new class is introduced into the U.S./World economy and politics, answerable to no one and wealthier than any individual citizen. Considering the stakes, one would like to see the passion.

Original Article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/25/opinion/should-corporations-have-more-leeway-to-kill-than-people-do.html?ref=opinion

Additional Information (linked due to embedding being forbidden):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=US26B0KPW6A