Criminal Liability of Corporations and Other Groups - A Comparative View

• NCJ Number: 84458
• Journal: Michigan Law Review Volume: 80 Issue: 7 Dated: (June 1982) Pages: 1508-1528
• Author(s): L H Leigh
• Date Published: 1982
• Length: 21 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

The status of corporate and group liability in Europe and in the common-law countries is surveyed, and the alternative methods of control in various legal systems are examined.

Abstract

The three systems of corporate liability are (1) full corporate criminal liability, such as applies in England and the United States; (2) partial corporate criminal liability, such as in Denmark, Belgium, and France; and (3) no corporate liability except under the guise of administrative offenses, such as in Italy and West Germany. In systems having full corporate criminal liability, the general rule is that all corporations are criminally liable without limitation as to type. While common-law countries recognize a wide measure of corporate criminal liability, there are important differences in the rules concerning attribution of fault. These differences reflect the various compromises reached in each country between the dictates of venerable legal principles and the need to enforce much modern socioeconomic legislation. A number of European systems recognize various forms of corporate criminal liability, either directly or indirectly. In all of these systems, however, the natural person is primarily responsible. In some European countries, administrative liability alone is possible for corporations. This reluctance to attribute criminal liability to corporations is based in the arguments that a corporation has no mind of its own and therefore cannot entertain guilt, that a corporation has no body and cannot act in propria persona, and that punishing a corporation would violate the fundamental principle that punishment should be imposed only on the actual offender. Still, both European systems and common-law systems are concerned about economic crime committed in and through corporate entities, such that proscriptions of whatever label are broadly similar, particularly regarding sanctions against directors and officers and in rem procedures. A total of 84 footnotes are listed.