1. You are a vice president of a multinational corporation headquartered in North America. You are asked to visit Latin America to meet with government officials to consider a location for a new factory. On your arrival, you are met at the airport by one of your hosts, who spends some time that day taking you on a tour of the city and getting acquainted. That evening you are invited to his home for dinner with government representatives. After dinner, one of the guests who works for a key government ministry asks what you think of your company's role in his country as an employer, taxpayer, and corporate good citizen. He makes it clear that his country is no longer a "puppet" of the North Americans. He asks you to show him that you understand his concerns and to show him that your company will be respectful of his country's culture, environment, natural resources, and local laws. How do you respond?
2. Assume that a Korean company manufacturing critical tail assemblies for commercial aircraft ships several defective assemblies to manufacturers in the United States. The CEO, a Korean national, was not only aware of the defects at the time the assemblies were being made but was also responsible for knowingly using inferior parts. He even threatened an engineer with termination if he leaked the truth. One of the assemblies failed on the American-made plane, leading to the crash of a Canadian-flag passenger airline on takeoff from New York. When the investigation leads to him, he flees Korea for Saudi Arabia, where he lives for several years in luxury. Which countries have jurisdiction to prosecute the Korean citizen, and under what legal principles? You do not need to research any international treaties, but you should base your analysis on general principles from this chapter.
3. Your company owns and operates a factory in a foreign country when it is invaded by a neighboring army over a border dispute. The invading government claims that your factory is actually on land belonging to them. Their soldiers destroy your buildings, threaten your employees, and arrest your local manager. While a complete answer to resolving this question will have to wait until later in the book, what recourse do you think you might have under international law against the invading country, if any? How might you proceed? Do you think it would be of any help to contact the U.S. State Department? Why?