header-logo header-logo

Corporate or criminal?

20 January 2011 / Steve Tombs , David Whyte
Issue: 7449 / Categories: Features , Health & safety
printer mail-detail

Steve Tombs & David Whyte highlight the dangers of reducing corporate prosecutions

Criminal Liability in Regulatory Contexts—the title of a recent (August 2010) Law Commission Consultation Document—might prompt the same response as Gandhi had when he heard the phrase “western democracy”.
Any longstanding critics of the consistent failure of law to hold corporations to account for their criminal conduct would have had any hopes of progressive reform dashed early on in its reading, where its organising assumption is stated baldly: “In regulated fields, reliance on the criminal law as the main means of deterring and punishing unwanted behaviour may prove to be an expensive, uncertain and ineffective strategy” (para 1.8). From here then flow a series of proposals which, in our view, will only further undermine the prospects for reversing the decriminalisation of illegal corporate conduct.

Evidence? What evidence?

The assumption encapsulated in the above quotation is by no means an unfamiliar one—and it is one which has gathered momentum in the UK in recent years. Such a claim is, for example, in close

If you are not a subscriber, subscribe now to read this content
If you are already a subscriber sign in
...or Register for two weeks' free access to subscriber content

MOVERS & SHAKERS

DWF—19 appointments

DWF—19 appointments

Belfast team bolstered by three senior hires and 16 further appointments

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Firm strengthens leveraged finance team with London partner hire

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Double hire marks launch of family team in Leeds

NEWS
Charlie Mercer and Astrid Gillam of Stewarts crunch the numbers on civil fraud claims in the English courts, in this week's NLJ. New data shows civil fraud claims rising steadily since 2014, with the King’s Bench Division overtaking the Commercial Court as the forum of choice for lower-value disputes
Artificial intelligence may be revolutionising the law, but its misuse could wreck cases and careers, warns Clare Arthurs of Penningtons Manches Cooper in this week's NLJ
Bea Rossetto of the National Pro Bono Centre makes the case for ‘General Practice Pro Bono’—using core legal skills to deliver life-changing support, without the need for niche expertise—in this week's NLJ
The Supreme Court issued a landmark judgment in July that overturned the convictions of Tom Hayes and Carlo Palombo, once poster boys of the Libor and Euribor scandal. In NLJ this week, Neil Swift of Peters & Peters considers what the ruling means for financial law enforcement
Small law firms want to embrace technology but feel lost in a maze of jargon, costs and compliance fears, writes Aisling O’Connell of the Solicitors Regulation Authority in this week's NLJ
back-to-top-scroll