‘Corporate Criminal Liability’: An Analysis of the Jurisprudence and Contemporary Approaches

Owing to the steep increase in corporate activity in almost all spheres of human civilization, the legal regimes of the world have been consistently working on developing the concept of ‘Corporate criminal liability’. With its centuries-old history marked by numerous jurisprudential contributions, the concept of ‘Corporate criminal liability’ has emerged to be one of the prominent areas of criminal justice studies. New schools of thought began emerging and redefining the traditional dimensions of the concept. The modern approaches to the idea of ‘corporate criminal liability’ operate with twin objectives. Firstly, they explore the historical problems associated with the question of attributing criminal liability to corporations and work on devising suitable solutions to them. Secondly, they try to extend the traditional scope of the concept to cope with the new forms of corporate crime. The paper discusses the historical thought about the concept by examining the conventional models of ‘derivative corporate liability’. Further, it analyses the gradual evolution of the modern ‘organizational theories critically’ and discusses their contribution towards resolving the age-old problems pertaining to the concept. The contemporary reforms effectuated by the English and Australian legal regimes are critically analyzed, and their potential merit in resolving the problems pertaining to the field of ‘corporate crime’ is inferred. The paper also throws light on the manner in which the Indian legal regime has been relying on the traditional derivative approaches to determine corporate guilt and discusses the need and feasibility of effectuating reforms in line with the modern organizational approaches.