Controlling Corporate Misconduct: an Analysis of Corporate Liability Regimes
Controlling Corporate Misconduct: An Analysis of Corporate Liability Regimes Jennifer Arlen Reinier Kraakman* July 16, 1997 * The authors are, respectively, Professor of Law, University of Southern California Law School, and Professor of Law, Harvard Law School. We wish to thank Barry Adler, Cindy Alexander, Stephen Bainbridge, Lucian Bebchuk, Barry Friedman, Mark Grady, Richard Gruner, Henry Hansmann, Bruce Hay, Marcel Kahan, Louis Kaplow, Lewis Kornhauser, Jennifer Reinganum, Richard Revesz, Roberta Romano, Alan Schwartz, Steven Shavell, Jeff Strnad, and participants in the Columbia Law School Law and Economics Workshop, the Harvard Law School Law and Economics Workshop, the University of Michigan Law and Economics Workshop, the New York University Law School Faculty Colloquium, San Diego Law School Faculty Colloquium, the University of Toronto Law School Law and Economics Workshop, the Yale Law School Law and Economics Workshop, and at the 1996 Annual Meeting of the American Association of Law and Economics for comments on earlier drafts of this paper. In addition, we would like to give particular thanks to Eric Talley. Jennifer Arlen received support from the Conrad N. Hilton Endowed Research Fund at the USC Law School. Reinier Kraakman received support from the Harvard Law School Faculty Research Fund and the Harvard Program on Law, Economics, and Business, which is supported in part by the John M. Olin Foundation. April 6, 1999 CONTROLLING CORPORATE MISCONDUCT 1 INTRODUCTION How should the law structure the responsibility of corporations for the crimes and intentional torts of their managers and other employees? This question has received too little attention despite its intrinsic importance. Under both criminal and civil law, a firm is directly and vicariously liable for wrongs committed by its agents (managers and other employees) within the scope of their employment.
[Show full text]