Corporate Crime and Conceptions of a Corporate Person

I argue that our understanding of the basis for corporate criminal liability and punishment would be enhanced by bringing out the different conceptions of the company that the law commonly employs, in shaping liability and justifying punishment. These are the conceptions of a company as (i) an abstract entity, (ii) an entity led by a supreme executive authority, (iii) a ‘real’ entity, and (iv) a concrete legal entity. In the course of the argument, I also make the case for using the increasingly popular ‘failure to prevent’ model of corporate criminal liability, particularly in cases of fault-based criminal wrongdoing by persons associated with the company. In that regard, I conclude with some reflections on the difference that the size and nature (e.g. ‘family firm’) of a company makes to the proper model of liability.