With industrialization and globalization, corporations acquired the capacity to influence social life for good or for ill. Yet, corporations are not traditional objects of criminal law. Justified by notions of personal moral guilt, criminal norms have been judged inapplicable to fictional persons, who 'think' and 'act' through human beings. The expansion of new corporate criminal liability (CCL) laws since the mid-1990s challenges this assumption. Our volume surveys current practice on CCL in 15 civil and common law jurisdictions, exploring the legal conditions for liability, the principles and options for sanctioning, and the procedures for investigating, charging and trying corporate offenders. It considers whether municipal CCL laws are converging around the notion of 'corporate culture', and, in any case, the implications of CCL for those charged with keeping corporations, and other legal entities, out of trouble.
From the reviews:
"The work explores the various forms and types of corporate criminal liability and examines the procedures necessary to achieve conviction and the sanctions attached to the same. ... this work is to be highly recommended for academics and students who have an interest in the comparative study of corporate criminal liability. ... the commentaries attached to the various jurisdictions provide the reader with an interesting and informative analysis of the development and emergence of rules relating to corporate criminal liability in individual states." (Stephen Griffin, International Company and Commercial Law Review, Vol. 23 (9), 2012)
"The work explores the various forms and types of corporate criminal liability and examines the procedures necessary to achieve conviction and the sanctions attached to the same. ... this work is to be highly recommended for academics and students who have an interest in the comparative study of corporate criminal liability. ... the commentaries attached to the various jurisdictions provide the reader with an interesting and informative analysis of the development and emergence of rules relating to corporate criminal liability in individual states." (Stephen Griffin, International Company and Commercial Law Review, Vol. 23 (9), 2012)