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Jailed in China Podcast
Transcript
Professor Robert Goodwin: Jailed in China
My most interesting story is my a friend of mine was arrested in China and put in jail… accused of being responsible for the deaths of eleven people who happened to be North Koreans who were visiting. Because of a hotel fire in Harbin in Manchuria, he was being held under house arrest. Meaning… he could leave the town. They took his passport and everything. So then he contacted me, and I was on my way to China, and he said would I represent him, and I spent the next 6 months trying to get him out of jail.
They decided that the rooms for these Korean guys were at the end of the hall and his room was sort of in the middle and they theorized that the fire started in his room and worked its way into the ductwork, into the rooms on the end. So, I was actually meeting with the chief judge and so I said, “Well now what’s… why did you conclude that the fire started in his room?” And he said, “Well, because the depth of char in the vertical door frame was deeper in his room than the other rooms where there had been fire.” And the fire expert that I had retained in England, he said, “Well that’s crazy because of course the depth of char is going to be deeper because the facts showed that the wind was open, so there was a draft in his room. So that doesn’t mean the fire started there. It just means, you know, it was more intense there at some point.”
There were a number of things like that, you know, where there was a veneer of an objective analysis, which was really solid. And I said I wanted to bring in the fire expert from England to testify. And they said, “No, Chinese experts are enough.” And this was back in 85’, was pretty early in the process and that was in a part of China which was itself kind of still in the 50’s. I mean, you know, it was kind of scary… I was followed and my phone was tapped, but uh, they must have been under tremendous pressure… I mean to lose… this was a North Korean delegation, you know, everybody in North Korea’s part of government… this was a North Korea delegation and to lose eleven North Koreans to China in a bad way… and they needed somebody responsible for this, but because of the fact that they wouldn’t allow an expert and a few other things, I was able to kick up a big fuss back here. I came home to, you know, get him out. I got the Vice President to raise it, I got the Secretary of Commerce to raise it… back and forth with the Chinese and it was a really life altering experience. It made me convinced that I had taken the right career path of avoiding trial law because it’s very stressful (laughing). Eventually, on Thanksgiving Day they let him out so they started in May… so, May to November.
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Course Resource
Employment Issues—Hiring and Firing
Notice: Contains Confidential Information
Colossal Corporation maintains a subsidiary in Serafini, a small country in Eastern Europe. This subsidiary is incorporated in the state of Delaware as New Brand Design, Inc. (NBD), a company that designs, brands, and manufactures innovative electronic products and markets and distributes them for resale across the globe. NBD has been admitted to conduct business in Serafini.
NBD’s executive board is composed of six expatriates from the United States, one expatriate from Italy, and three local Serafini nationals. These 10 board members manage over 100 employees who are all nationals of Serafini.
Two of the local Serafini executives, Elena and Viktor, recently learned that their salaries are much lower than the other eight members of the executive board, and their benefits packages not nearly as comprehensive. They are upset and have lodged formal complaints with the human resources director at NBD, Max Ciccone.
Max has been dealing with the troubles at NBD for a few months and has been consulting with operations in the United States to try to find a solution. US operations decided to try to fix the problem by sending out two more expatriates from the United States on five-year contracts to replace Elena and Viktor.
The new US expatriates that NBD plans to send to Serafini are Michael and Beth. Michael is a 66-year-old who has a lot of executive experience and is the former CFO of another of Colossal’s international subsidiaries. Beth is a 42-year-old with 15 years of experience in management. NBD has applied for visas and work permits for Michael and Beth, as required under Serafini law.
Elena and Viktor are very upset, but they are continuing to do their work as usual. Max has explained to them that their salaries are reflective of their more limited experience and qualifications relative to the other members of the executive team. Despite this explanation, Elena and Viktor continue to complain and threaten lawsuits, saying they have equal experience and qualifications to at least three other US board members (which happens to be true).
Serafini is not a democracy and it has no equal-pay laws. Moreover, everyone in Serafini is required to retire at 65. The stated reason for this law is that the country must force older workers to retire so younger workers can find jobs. For this reason, the labor office of Serafini is refusing to grant Michael a work permit.
Although there is no local law prohibiting women from taking management positions in Serafini, the labor office of Serafini is known for fabricating reasons to deny women’s requests for work permits. It now is refusing to grant a work permit for Beth. The labor office claims her paperwork was incomplete, but Max has confirmed it was complete when it was initially sent. He recalls that he even re-sent her paperwork to ensure processing. To date, the labor office has not responded to Max’s many requests to confirm receipt of Beth’s paperwork.
Because of the hold-up with the permits, no action has yet been taken to terminate Elena or Viktor, and Max is consulting with US operations about what he can do legally and ethically to resolve these issues.
© 2024 University of Maryland Global Campus
All links to external sites were verified at the time of publication. UMGC is not responsible for the validity or integrity of information located at external sites.
Learning Topic
Employment Discrimination
Employment discrimination is a specific area of employment law involving protected classes of employees. Numerous federal and state statutes put individuals into what are known as protected classes based on innate or immutable characteristics such as race, sex, religion, age, and disability. Employment discrimination law protects employees in these classes from discrimination by their employer based on the defined characteristics. However, whether or not a particular person is protected under the laws depends on the answers to many threshold questions.
For example, some statutes apply only if an employer has a minimum number of employees. For the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) or Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII) to apply, an employer must have at least 15 employees. For the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) to apply, an employer must have at least 20 employees.
Although these employee numbers are minimum threshold requirements under federal law, many states decrease or even eliminate the threshold requirements in their own discrimination laws. Many states also add additional protected classes to their laws, such as sexual orientation, which is not currently an explicit protected class in private employment under federal law. Thus, states are capable of broadening discrimination laws within their jurisdictions, making a violation of both state law and federal law in one act of discrimination a real possibility in many states.
Many federal employment discrimination laws not only apply to the entire United States, but have an extraterritorial reach; that is, they apply to US citizens working for certain US-owned or -operated companies abroad. For example, Title VII, the ADA, and the ADEA all apply to certain companies operating outside the United States; however, the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), a related law that governs wage and overtime requirements, generally does not.
There are many other federal discrimination laws with varying applicability, and even more state discrimination laws. All of these laws establish rights for covered employees and place affirmative obligations on covered employers, with the aim of reducing discrimination in the workplace.
Resources
· Common Law versus Civil Law Legal Systems
· Extraterritorial Reach of Laws
· What is the Fair Labor Standards Act?
© 2024 University of Maryland Global Campus
All links to external sites were verified at the time of publication. UMGC is not responsible for the validity or integrity of information located at external sites.
Learning Topic
Cross-Cultural Ethical Business Decision Making
Management in the global arena involves addressing unique and difficult issues of culture and morality. Although general ethical frameworks may help you to assess management decisions in a cross-cultural context, there are unique questions that arise in global settings. The resources below provide guidance for situations involving conflicting ethical norms and customs of different cultures within the business context.
How an organization addresses unique situations involving ethics and customs will impact its success in the global arena. The first subtopic examines the role of ethical theory in global business. The second subtopic examines the role of cultural theory in global business.
Resources
Ethical Theory in Global Business
· Corruption in International Business
Cultural Theory in Global Business
· Introduction to Culture and Business
· What is Culture, Anyhow? Values, Customs, and Language
· Understanding How Culture Impacts Local Business Practice
· Ethical and Cross-Cultural Negotiations
© 2024 University of Maryland Global Campus
All links to external sites were verified at the time of publication. UMGC is not responsible for the validity or integrity of information located at external sites.
Learning Topic
References and Citations
In your papers, you should provide sufficient, correctly cited support that substantiates your ideas.
Even research papers only use sources as support, not in lieu of original thought from you, the essay's author. Use sources that enhance your ideas, but don't let other people's work stand in for your own. If you're writing or presenting a research assignment, don't just assemble other people's ideas. Think of your sources as your big brothers backing you up in a fight, but not going in the melee instead of you. You should connect what you're writing to the source material, and then explain the source material's relevance. Don't let a quote just hang there unexplained, and never end a paragraph on someone else's words. Always, always tie up a quote with your own words.
You need to be fair and accurate: don't take quotes out of context or spin summaries to suit your own purposes. If the material you want to use doesn't really support your point, find other material that does.
The Graduate School standard is APA documentation. Reference your sources appropriately and accurately (not by the source's first name, for instance, and not by only one name if it was a group project). If you don't know APA documentation, check your APA guide, or go to the UMGC library, or search online for the example you need. Many people find the idea of citing or of using a particular format stressful, but it needn't be. It's finicky, and it's nitpicky, but it's really just following a template. If you can follow a recipe, you can follow these guidelines.
Resources
· Use Credible Sources to Support, Extend, and Inform an Original Thesis or Idea
· Clear Communication: Using Citations
© 2024 University of Maryland Global Campus
All links to external sites were verified at the time of publication. UMGC is not responsible for the validity or integrity of information located at external sites.
Course Resource
Dualplex 360
Notice: Contains confidential information.
Colossal Corporation maintains a subsidiary in Serafini, a small country in Eastern Europe. This subsidiary is incorporated in the state of Delaware as New Brand Design, Inc. (NBD), a company that designs, brands, and manufactures innovative electronic products, and markets and distributes them for resale across the globe. NBD has been admitted to conduct business in Serafini.
NBD has been manufacturing and distributing a laptop computer with 360-degree technology. The thin tablet can easily convert into a laptop by flipping the screen over and locking it in place against the back of the keyboard. The laptop, marketed under the name Dualplex 360 is very popular and is distributed primarily in Western Europe, North America, and South Africa.
The Dualplex 360 went on the market six months ago, and the product is selling out in the United States and Europe. Unfortunately, consumers have reported that some laptops that were shipped to the United States have overheated and ignited when they have remained plugged into a power source for too long. In a few cases, the laptops have burned users and damaged property.
NBD’s research and development team was fully aware of the overheating problem when putting the Dualplex 360 on the market but performed a cost-benefit analysis and determined that the payouts from lawsuits would be less than the cost of redesigning and manufacturing a new laptop. The research and development team covered up the defect but included the following disclaimer in the instruction manual:
DO NOT LEAVE THE DUALPLEX 360 PLUGGED IN TO A POWER SOURCE AFTER THE BATTERY IS FULLY CHARGED. SELLER EXPLICITLY DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES. SELLER MAKES NO WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR USE. NOR IS THERE ANY OTHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTY.
The instruction manual contained no other warnings regarding the possibility of overheating or danger. To date, all instances of overheating have resulted from consumers ignoring the warning and leaving their computers plugged in after the battery is fully charged, although some claim they never read the instruction manual so did not see the warning.
The executive board of NBD has reached out to the CEO of Colossal to discuss these issues and the potential that NBD will be held liable for the overheating laptops and resulting injuries and damage to property. The CEO informed the board that the company’s international task force will research and address these concerns.
© 2024 University of Maryland Global Campus
All links to external sites were verified at the time of publication. UMGC is not responsible for the validity or integrity of information located at external sites.
Learning Topic
Tort Damages
The overarching purpose of tort law is to provide remedies, usually in the form of damages (monetary awards), to persons injured by the civil wrongs of others. Damages awarded for tort violations include compensatory and punitive damages.
The aim of compensatory damages is to place the injured party in the same position that party would have been in had the tort never been committed, that is, to make the injured party whole. Compensatory damages are sometimes categorized into two types: special and general compensatory damages. Special damages are quantifiable monetary losses incurred by the injured party, such as the cost of replacing or repairing damaged property, medical costs, past lost wages and benefits, future lost wages and benefits, and other quantifiable costs resulting from the tort. General damages, on the other hand, are not easily quantifiable and include pain and suffering, loss of consortium, loss of reputation, and loss of mental or physical capacity resulting from a tort.
In some egregious cases, courts also award punitive damages. Punitive damages are intended to punish a tortfeasor (person who commits a tort) for engaging in particularly wanton or reckless conduct that reflects a disregard for the interests of others. Punitive damages are often limited by courts to approximately three times the amount of compensatory damages, in order to satisfy the due process requirements of the Constitution (exceeding these approximate amounts may be deemed an unconstitutional deprivation of another person’s property). Thus, punitive damages are reserved for the most egregious of tort cases, and appeals often follow when a trial court awards them. They are generally only available for intentional torts, although they are sometimes available for cases of gross negligence.
Resources
© 2024 University of Maryland Global Campus
All links to external sites were verified at the time of publication. UMGC is not responsible for the validity or integrity of information located at external sites.
Learning Topic
Negligence and Product Liability
Tort law, an important component of civil law within the US common law system, generally encompasses situations in which an individual's conduct causes harm to another. Tort is literally translated from French as a "wrong." Conduct gives rise to claims in court when a specific statutory or common law tort has been committed. When a tort is committed, one may seek compensation for the tort in court in the form of damages (monetary compensation).
Tort law can be divided according to three broad categories of tort: intentional torts, negligence, and strict liability torts.
Intentional torts generally require that one "intended" to cause the consequences of the act. That is, that one meant to perform the act that caused harm to another.
Negligence generally requires that one be at fault for committing the act. Negligence theory underlies many personal injury actions, such as car accidents.
Strict liability torts require neither intent nor fault; simply causing harm to an individual while performing one from an enumerated list of strict liability torts gives rise to damages (even if the individual did not intend the act and was not at fault for it).
Negligence is a legal doctrine that underlies many types of lawsuits when someone or an entity is at fault for harm caused to another. In order to prove negligence, the injured party (plaintiff) must prove the following five elements:
· existence of a duty of care owed by the defendant to the plaintiff
· unreasonable behavior by the defendant that breaches the duty of care
· causation in fact
· proximate causation
· an actual injury
There are various methods of proving these five elements during or before a trial. The absence of any one of these elements will undermine the potential for a successful negligence claim. Negligence is the basis for not only personal injury actions but also most malpractice lawsuits and many lawsuits involving damage to person or property caused by products on the market, when strict liability is not available for those suits.
Strict liability torts are torts that impose liability upon an individual or an entity simply for the individual's or entity's causing harm or engaging in an activity from an enumerated list. The law imposes this strict liability in order to protect certain vulnerable populations from harm caused by those who engage in certain high-risk activities. These activities include the following:
· dealing in very hazardous material
· possessing a vicious or wild animal
· taking part in the production or sale of an unreasonably dangerous product
If any person causes injury to another pursuant to participation in one of these activities, then, absent an adequate and applicable defense, that person is liable to the injured regardless of fault or intent. Strict liability thus makes it easier for a plaintiff to recover from harm done.
Products liability is a type of strict liability, but the term is sometimes used to denote something more than mere strict liability for dangerous products. In some cases, products liability is used to denote all causes of action against producers or distributors of products that harm consumers. These causes of action include strict liability and negligence claims based on design defects, manufacturing defects, and inadequate warnings. The causes also include breaches of express and implied warranty claims. This broader conception of products liability is often employed in lieu of the narrower sense encompassing just strict products liability.
Resources
Licenses and Attributions
Business Law: An Introduction , by TheBusinessProfessor.com, Jason M. Gordon & Colleagues has been adapted with permission from Jason M. Gordon. © Business Professor, LLC.
© 2024 University of Maryland Global Campus
All links to external sites were verified at the time of publication. UMGC is not responsible for the validity or integrity of information located at external sites.
