Corporate culpability

This paper examines how the law should respond when deaths, injuries or other wrongs or harms are caused through corporate operations. It first considers a growing school of thought, emanating from the law and economics literature in the United States, that civil liability might be more appropriate than criminal liability in most cases. Rejecting this view, it argues that the goals of the criminal law are best achieved by the prosecution and punishment of the company itself rather than the individuals within the company. The issue then becomes one of determining the method by which this can be achieved. Various possibilities are considered: the identification doctrine; the aggregation doctrine; reactive corporate fault; vicarious liability; management failure model; corporate mens rea; and the creation of specific corporate offences. The paper argues that the corporate mens rea doctrine, coupled with the use of Corporate Compliance Programmes, is the best mechanism for the imposition of corporate criminal liability.