Rethinking the Law on Corporate Manslaughter to Better Reflect the Artificial Legal Existence of Corporations
Plymouth Law and Criminal Justice Review (2019) ARE CORPORATIONS FREE TO KILL? RETHINKING THE LAW ON CORPORATE MANSLAUGHTER TO BETTER REFLECT THE ARTIFICIAL LEGAL EXISTENCE OF CORPORATIONS 1 Lucy Hooper Abstract This year, 2018, marks the 10 year anniversary of the implementation of the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007. It is, therefore, an appropriate time to review its effectiveness and consider whether the Act has achieved what it set out to. Its introduction was a parliamentary attempt to address the key defects’2 under the previous identification doctrine, where a company’s liability was dependant on gross negligent manslaughter being sought in the relevant directing mind and will. This article will highlight the inadequacies of the former regime and review to what extent the 2007 Act has resolved them. Importantly, it references the recent Grenfell Tower disaster, which, if corporate manslaughter charges are pursued, will be the Act’s biggest and most public challenge to date. Keywords: corporate manslaughter, Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007, gross negligent manslaughter Introduction Companies, as a result of Salomon3, are ‘distinct and independent’4 entities separate from their members. However, in reality, ‘corporations have no consciences, no beliefs, no feelings, no thoughts, no desires’ and merely ‘help structure and facilitate the activities of human beings’. 5 Consequently, under the original common law models, corporate criminal liability had to be found in individuals and then ‘attributed’ to the company. Attribution in the UK, commonly takes two forms. The first, vicarious liability, imposes liability on corporations ‘for the criminal acts of employees…acting within the scope of their employment’.6 It is, ‘wholly derivative’.7 While the principle is easily applied, ‘a corporation is not…so abstract, impalpable 1 Lucy graduated with a first class LLB honours and was awarded the Womble Bond Dickinson prize for the best student undertaking commercial law.
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