Question

What are the legal issues associated with corporate criminal liability? Should prosecutors be aggressive in prosecuting corporations for crimes? Why or Why not?

Answer 1

The corporate legal liability determines the extent to which a corporation as a legal identity can be liable for the acts and omissions of the natural person it employs. The main problem is that the corporate has no physical existence, thus can only act vicariously through the agency of the human beings it employs. The main legal issues associated with corporate criminal liability are as follows:

-- The failure to prove or identify criminal intent of a juristic, fictional being because the corporation are intangible legal entities

-- A corporation cannot be put to death or imprisoned; therefore the threat of imprisonment which plays a main role in criminal law will not be applicable here.

-- In a criminal case courts required the accused to be physically brought before them for proceedings to take place. however it is not possible with corporations

No, prosecutors should not be aggressive in prosecuting corporations for crimes. It is relatively uncontroversial that human beings may commit crimes for whom the punishment is a just desert, the extent to which the corporation can incur liability is not much clear. Since a corporation cannot be sent to jail and if a fine is imposed it diminishes the salaries of all the remaining employees, and the available profits to pay all the existing shareholders. Hence the effect of the only available penalty is deflected from the wrongdoer personally and distributed among all the innocent parties who supply the capital and labor that keep the corporation solvent.