Shell, Environmental Justice and Nigerian Oil
A Case Study by William E. Newburry and Thomas N. Gladwin

Some Questions to Consider:

  1. Case Analysis Question 3 (on page 2):

    Who is responsible, either directly or indirectly, for the environmental damage, human rights abuses, and atrocities committed against the Ogoni people and their activist spokespersons? Based upon this assigned responsibility, what does Shell and/or the Nigerian government rightfully owe the Ogoni people in exchange, historically and prospectively, for the oil extraction from, environmental damage caused to, and human rights abuses perpetrated within the Ogoni homeland?

  2. What is the bottom line when it comes to setting environmental standards? What gives an Englishman or an American the right to have higher environmental standards than a Chinese citizen or a Nigerian? Should an internationally active organization (like Shell) drastically vary their standards when operating in different countries?
  3. Imagine that you are Shell. Next, imagine that you are the Nigerian government. What would be your rationale behind Ken Saro-Wiwa’s arrest and conviction?
  4. Case Analysis Question 4 (on page 2):

    Is it proper for a publicly-owned firm such as The Body Shop to behave as an agent of progressive social change, as in this case, by declaring an impassioned moral war upon the Nigerian Government and Shell in order to advance the interests deemed important to the Body Shop? What would Milton Friedman think of this?

  5. Can capitalism exist where there is no democracy?