The Research Of The Responsibility Subjects Of The Multinational Companies' Environmental Torts

The multinational corporations' position in the global economy is more remarkable than before, the environmental standards of the developed countries are enhanced day by day,the industrial structures are adjusted and changed, many high-risk environmental industries transfer from the developed countries to the developing countries. Many multinational corporations execute the lower environmental standards in the host countries than in their own country, sometimes even break the environmental law of the host countries to do the destructive exploitation and production, therefore a mass of environmental problems are raised, environmental torts happened occasionally, these problems violate the environmental rights of the local residents and damage the environment of the host countries badly.In jurisprudential after the infringement act, we must first definite the subjects of legal responsibility and then investigate and affix the responsibility for the subjects. The environmental torts of the multinational corporations are different from the ordinary torts, the consequences of them are more serious, the aggrieved party is large, the involved scope is vast. Obviously the subsidiaries of the multinational corporations can not bear the environmental responsibility by its own ability. So let the parent company even the home country to undertake the due obligations of the environmental torts is very important. However, the parent companies often transfer their risks by using the subsidiaries in practice, they earn the profits from the operation of the subsidiaries, but they fainaigue when the environmental damages happen, because the limited liability principle and the independent legal person qualification of the subsidiaries. The capital of the subsidiaries are limited, they can not relive the damage of the host countries. Besides that, some operations are managed by the home countries, and the countries are benefit from the operations, these kinds of actions usually have high pollution risks, such as, outer space actions, nuclear power actions and so on. If these actions destroy the host countries' environment, the subsidiaries even the parent companies can not redeeming the damages. But according to the traditional state responsibility, the acts of state should improper or illegal, otherwise the countries do not in charge of the acts. It can not give the aggrieved party proper protection, at this time ,the international law should bring the without international law prohibited behaviour into the environmental responsibility of the state, let the home countries undertake international liability to pay compensation, so as to protect the right of the host countries. This paper revolves around the responsibility subjects of the multinational corporations' environmental torts, analysis the theories to investigate the parent companies and the home countries responsibility in the torts, and the properties of these responsibilities, in hopes that clear the responsibility subjects ,to give the host countries and their people the maximal compensation.