March 11, 2011. That day will be etched in Japan’s memory for a long, long time. The 9.0 magnitude Tohoku earthquake that happened was the most powerful ever recorded in Japan and the fourth most powerful in the world. It caused a tsunami so strong that Honshu, the main island of Japan, moved 2.4 m east. It also triggered the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Okuma, perhaps, the severest nuclear accident since the Chernobyl disaster of 1986.
When the tsunami struck, the Tokyo Electric Power Company’s (TEPCO) Fukushima-Daiichi Nuclear power plant suffered meltdowns in three of its six reactors. Waves reaching up to 14 metres (46 feet) in height knocked out the plant’s backup power supply, causing fuel inside the reactors to melt. The radiation released in the atmosphere – and this continued for quite a few days after the accident — forced the government to declare a 20-kilometer radius evacuation zone around the plant. The 154,000-odd people who were affected were forced to move away from their homes for ever.
What followed were multiple class-action lawsuits that were filed holding the TEPCO executives and the government responsible for failing to take preventive counter measures. Many civil cases have already resulted in the payment of millions of dollars as compensation to the residents.
The case
The only criminal case, aimed at fixing the culpability of the disaster was filed by 5700 residents of Fukushima in 2015. Interestingly, the government prosecutors were reluctant to begin criminal proceedings against the top executives of TEPCO initially, but they were overruled by the citizen judiciary panel (a system where randomly selected Japanese citizens review prosecutor’s discretionary nonprosecution decisions in criminal cases). The TEPCO bosses were indicted and the trial began in 2017.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der September - October 2019-Ausgabe von Legal Notes.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent ? Anmelden
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der September - October 2019-Ausgabe von Legal Notes.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent? Anmelden
Time For Action
Since time immemorial, the environment has had a larger-than-life place in the Indian scheme of things. But the Nineties and the new century have really been a sad story of a virtually unending line of laws failing to combat the increasing levels of pollution brought forth by urbanisation, and the global pressure about greenhouse emissions resulting in the Paris accord that now brings in its wake greater pressure on countries to tighten laws. Amidst all this, India shines as a classic example of the irrational mindset of enacting more laws to produce less pollution. RACHANA RANA BHATTACHARYA, while examining the dizzying number of laws that engulf us and the incredulously lopsided judicial pronouncements made by different courts, poses a simple question: What is the way forward?
Who's Responsible For Fukushima?
Even as the Fukushima nuclear disaster continues to haunt a section of the Japanese people and the world, a Japanese Court’s decision to acquit the nuclear power company, TEPCO’s bosses after three years of trial, raises questions over the use of nuclear power for energy needs.
Tata, Bye-Bye?
What would one choose between their right to vote in local body elections and to receive world class civic amenities? The answer isn’t as simple as it looks. Jamshedpur — the land of the Tatas has been struggling with this question for the last 30 years and looks like they still haven’t found an answer. Maintained by the Tatas, there has been a steady incline in the number of voices demanding a government operated municipality to take over the town. In the midst of consecutive orders by various High Courts, the Supreme Court and clashing opinions, SHWETA MENON in her visit to the steel city found that the majority verdict by the janta remains in favour of the Tatas.
No Winners In The Opioid Case
Pain can make you rich and the opioid issue in the US is testimony to that. But other than the wealth it spawned, opioid has generated a huge number of legal cases in the US – and quite a few of them have been filed by the states. Will the Sacklers, one of the richest families in the US and the makers of the pain-relieving drug OxyContin, go scot free?
J&-K A Jumble Of Laws
The transition of Jammu and Kashmir from a state to a Union Territory hasn’t been an easy one.
Tourism Of A Different Kind
Is settlement tourism making the situation worse in the disputed West Bank region? That is a question that remains to be answered. Despite Airbnb changing course on its earlier decision to ban listings for Israeli settlements in the West Bank, the legal battle continues.
Another Toothless Commission!
There was a walkout by the opposition, protests were staged across the capital, activists were shoved into police vans, letters were written to the President urging him to not sign the amendment and yet the central government was finally able to hit a six in its second attempt this year to amend the RTI (Right to Information) Act!
Labour's “Decent Life” Dreams Continue
“Every moving The Code on Wages Bill, 2019 made it a point to inform the Members of the Rajya Sabha that the government had accepted 17 out of the 24 recommendations made by the Standing Committee which had scrutinised a similar bill introduced in the previous Lok Sabha.
Article 370 - The Albatross Around The Neck
Considered an ‘albatross around the neck’ by the present BJP government at the centre, the sudden and surprising abrogation of Article 370 has opened the doors to a flood of emotions. The abrogation will be debated and tested in the Supreme Court, but it seems that the move has already won in the peoples’ court.
UAPA Amendment: Need Of The Hour
The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Act, 2019, which has received the Presidential assent after being passed in both the Houses of Parliament in the just-concluded session, empowers the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to designate an individual as a “terrorist”.
