Question

1. What would utilitarianism, rights theory, and justice say about these activities of ExxonMobil, Amerada Hess, and
Marathon Oil in Equatorial Guinea?

Answer 1

ExxonMobil’s, Amerada Hess’ and Marathon Oil’s actions, intentions and decisional consequences can be analyzed by utilitarianism, rights theory, and justice sub-theories and ideas, as the companies, governments and citizens are all affected. Utilitarianism focuses on the companies’ decisions’ consequences; rights theory zeroes in on if the companies maintain and respect relevant parties’ rights; and the justice ideas concentrate on the companies’ embracement of civil equality of liberties and justification of inequalities.

A utilitarian may view the companies’ actions and consequences under four of utilitarianism’s characteristics: consequentialism, hedonism, minimalism, and universalism, as listed in a business ethics textbook . Firstly, and theoretically the most significant in context, as consequentialism involves decision validity, the three companies’ intentions matches this principle, for their main goal, the ultimate consequence, included helping West African countries produce $4 billion annual oil revenues. Additionally, as these companies acquired eighty percent of the annual oil revenues, while the majority of Equatorial Guinea’s population remained poor.