The probability of a last-chance trial is further diminishing: the chemical companies that produced Agent Orange should not be subject to a second-instance judgment in France. The powerful herbicide released from their factories has nevertheless caused several million victims and contaminated the environment for a long time. But on Thursday, August 22, the Paris Court of Appeal confirmed the inadmissibility of Tran To Nga’s request. This 82-year-old Franco-Vietnamese woman launched proceedings before the French courts ten years ago in order to hold Dow Chemical, Monsanto, Thomson Hayward, Hercules, Uniroyal, Diamond Shamrock, Occidental Chemical Corporation, and others, accountable. Twenty-six American chemical companies in total, were involved in supplying this exfoliant sprayed during the Vietnam War. Millions of liters contaminated the country’s tropical forests and reached the fighters they sheltered during the 1960s.
Following the mergers and name changes that have taken place since then, there are still fourteen companies being sued in France. The whole question is whether they acted under duress from the American government in wartime, as they claim, or whether they had room for maneuver in the manufacturing process of this highly toxic product. Concocted from research conducted by the American army in the 1940s, it generates “Seveso dioxin” (TCDD) and continues, even today, to give birth in certain Vietnamese regions to deformed, atrophied, eyeless, hydrocephalic children…
The stubborn approach of Tran To Nga, an activist and journalist during this war, was finally examined by the Evry judicial court in 2021. The procedure was then deemed inadmissible at first instance. With the help of lawyer William Bourdon and his team, who have been resolutely supporting her from the beginning, Mme Tran is appealing. She and her daughters suffer from several medical conditions linked to Agent Orange.
Immunity from jurisdiction
On May 7, in the Tronchet room of the Paris courthouse, which was far too small for the scope of the subject being discussed, the audience that had come to support Tran To Nga squeezed in, standing, at the back. Half of the seats were occupied by the fifteen or so counsels that the American firms had commissioned to defend them. The latter asked the Court of Appeal and the Evry court to be able to claim “immunity from jurisdiction”: a rule of customary international law, according to which a State cannot be judged by another for actions carried out in the exercise of its sovereignty. A principle that helps to promote courteous relations between capitals.
You have 63.51% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.