Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T00:23:50.100Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Finding fault in organisations – reconceptualising the role of senior managers in corporate manslaughter

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Luke Price
Luke Price*
Affiliation:
University of Exeter School of Law
*
Luke Price, University of Exeter School of Law, Rennes Drive, Exeter EX4 4RJ, UK. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 purports to move away from the identification doctrine, towards a genuinely organisational model of corporate liability. There is a risk, however, that insistence upon the involvement of senior management in corporate manslaughter will reduce the Act to doing no more than aggregating individual misconduct. Such an approach would fail both to encompass the culpability of the organisation as more than just a collection of individuals, and to offer an effective tool for the prosecution of large organisations. I argue that the senior management requirement should not be interpreted as focusing on individuals, but on the authoritative systems of work that organisations impose upon their employees. Inherent in large organisations is a corporate structure, determining the meaning and value of what employees perceive and the boundaries and direction of their work. These structures emerge from the involvement of senior managers, whose rank and role within organisations enables them to contribute to the development of corporate structure. Through insistence on the involvement of these corporate architects and surveyors, the 2007 Act may be seen to emphasise the role of the organisation in corporate manslaughter, identifying truly corporate culpability.

Type
Research Article
Information
Legal Studies , Volume 35 , Issue 3 , September 2015 , pp. 385 - 407
Copyright
Copyright © Society of Legal Scholars 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007, s 1(2).

2. Wells, C ‘Corporate criminal liability in England and Wales’ in Pieth, M and Ivory, R (eds) Corporate Criminal Liability: Emergence, Convergence, and Risk (Dordrecht: Springer, 2011) p 109.Google Scholar

3. Coase, RH ‘The nature of the firm’ (1937) 4 Economica 386 at 404.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4. Lounsbury, M and Ventresca, M ‘The new structuralism in organizational theory’ (2003) 10 Organization 457 at 459.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

5. Anderson, P ‘Complexity theory and organization science’ (1999) 10 Org Sci 216 at 228.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

6. Pratt, J, Gordon, P and Plamping, D Working Whole Systems: Putting Theory into Practice in Organisations (Oxford: Radcliffe, 2nd edn, 2005) p 13.Google Scholar

7. Dickson, MW et al ‘An organizational climate regarding ethics: the outcome of leader values and the practices that reflect them’ (2001) 12 Leadership Q 197 at 208.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

8. Director of Public Prosecutions v Kent & Sussex Contractors Ltd [1944] KB 146 at 155.

9. Lennard's Carrying Co Ltd v Asiatic Petroleum Co Ltd [1915] AC 705 HL at 713.

10. [1972] AC 153 HL.

11. Tesco Supermarkets Ltd v Nattrass [1972] AC 153 HL at 170.

12. Clough, J ‘Bridging the theoretical gap: the search for a realist model of corporate criminal liability’ (2007) 18 Crim L Forum 267 at 271.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

13. HL Bolton (Engineering) Co Ltd v TJ Graham & Sons Ltd [1957] 1 QB 159 CA at 172.

14. Tesco Supermarkets Ltd v Nattrass, above 11, at 170.

15. Attorney General's Reference (No 2 of 1999) [2000] QB 796 CA) at 813.

16. Velasquez, M ‘Debunking corporate moral responsibility’ (2003) 13 Bus Ethics Q 531 at 543.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

17. Tesco Supermarkets Ltd v Nattrass, above 11, at 171.

18. El Ajou v Dollar Land Holdings Ltd [1993] EWCA Civ 4, [1994] BCC 143 at 151, 154.

19. Gobert, J ‘Corporate killing at home and abroad – reflections on the government's proposals’ (2002) 118 Law Q Rev 72 at 75.Google Scholar

20. Ormerod, D and Taylor, R ‘The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007’ (2008) 8 Crim L Rev 589 at 592.Google Scholar

21. El Ajou v Dollar Land Holdings Ltd, above 18, at 151.

22. R v Coroner for East Kent, ex parte Spooner (1989) 88 Cr App R 10 DC, 16.

23. Dobson, A ‘The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007: a symbolic response’ (2009) 17 Asia Pac L Rev 185 at 187.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

24. Attorney General's Reference (No 2 of 1999) [2000] QB 796 CA at 802.

25. Ibid.

26. Ibid.

27. Ibid.

28. Ibid.

29. Ibid, at 803.

30. Ibid, at 815.

31. Home Office Reforming the Law on Involuntary Manslaughter: the Government's Proposals (2000) at 3.

32. Clarkson, Cmv ‘Corporate manslaughter: yet more government proposals’ [2005] Crim L Rev 677.Google Scholar

33. Wells, above 2, pp 100–101.

34. Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 (Commencement no 1) Order, SI 2008/40, art 2.

35. Department of Transport MV Herald of Free Enterprise: Report No 8074 (HMSO, 1987) p 1.Google Scholar

36. Ibid, p 8.

37. Ibid, p 10.

38. Ibid, p 14.

39. Mujih, E ‘Reform of the law on corporate killing: a toughening or softening of the law?’ (2008) 29 Company Law 76 at 78.Google Scholar

40. Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007, s 1(1).

41. Ormerod and Taylor, above 20, at 590.

42. Ibid, at 602.

43. Gobert, J ‘The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 – thirteen years in the making but was it worth the wait?’ (2008) 71 Mod L Rev 413 at 417–418.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

44. Law Commission Legislating the Criminal Code – Involuntary Manslaughter (Law Com No 237, 1996) para 8.20.

45. Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007, s 1(3).

46. Ormerod and Taylor, above 20, at 591–592.

47. Skupski, GR ‘The senior management mens rea: another stab at a workable integration of organizational culpability into corporate criminal liability’ (2011) 62 Case W L Rev 263 at 270.Google Scholar

48. Slapper, G ‘Corporate punishment’ (2010) 74 J Crim L 181 at 182.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

49. Harris, J ‘The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007: unfinished business?’ (2007) 28 Company Law 321.Google Scholar

50. Law Commission Criminal Liability in Regulatory Contexts (Consultation Paper No 195, 2010) para 5.93.

51. Editorial ‘The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007’ [2007] Crim L Rev 749 at 750.Google Scholar

52. Appleby, M ‘More questions than answers’ (2012) 30 Safety & Health Pract 19.Google Scholar

53. ‘Police toiling with corporate manslaughter, say lawyers’ (2009) [27] 4 Safety & Health Pract.

54. Ibid.

55. Sentencing Guidelines Council Corporate Manslaughter & Health and Safety Offences Causing Death – Definitive Guideline (2010) p 7.

56. R Connell ‘Seventh corporate manslaughter conviction: Cavendish Masonry’ Lexology 12 June 2014, available at http://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=dec55208-9a3d-43c7-82e9-56cb4d3a29ea (accessed 12 July 2014).

57. ‘Boss fined after corporate manslaughter conviction’ FleetNews 4 March 2014, available at http://www.fleetnews.co.uk/news/2014/3/4/boss-fined-after-corporate-manslaughter-conviction/49774/ (accessed 12 July 2014).

58. Mujih, above 39, at 79.

59. Ormerod and Taylor, above 20, at 604.

60. Gobert ‘The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007’, above 43, at 429.

61. Skupski, above 47, at 284.

62. Harlow, JW ‘Corporate criminal liability for homicide: a statutory framework’ (2011–2012) 61 Duke L J 123 at 149.Google Scholar

63. Department of Transport, above 35, pp 8, 11.

64. Ibid, p 8.

65. Ibid, p 15.

66. Ibid.

67. Gibson, K ‘Fictitious persons and real responsibilities’ (1995) 14 J Bus Ethics 761.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

68. Wilmot, S ‘Corporate moral responsibility: what can we infer from our understanding of organisations?’ (2001) 30 J Bus Ethics 161 at 164.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

69. Pouncy, Crp ‘Reevaluating corporate criminal responsibility: it's all about power’ (2011) 41 Stetson L Rev 97 at 110.Google Scholar

70. Buell, SW ‘The blaming function of entity criminal liability’ (2006) 81 Indiana L J 473 at 492–493.Google Scholar

71. Kozlowski, Swj and Klein, KJ ‘A multilevel approach to theory and research in organizations: contextual, temporal, and emergent processes’ in Klein, KJ and Kozlowski, Swj (eds) Multilevel Theory, Research and Methods in Organizations: Foundations, Extensions, and New Directions (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2000) p 58.Google Scholar

72. Whittingham, RB The Blame Machine: Why Human Error Causes Accidents (Oxford: Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann, 2004) p 120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

73. Gibson, above 67, at 761.

74. Department of Transport, above 35, p 5.

75. Ibid, p 8.

76. Ibid, p 9.

77. Ibid, p 8.

78. Ibid, p 15.

79. Ibid.

80. Ibid, p 26.

81. Coase, above 3, at 391.

82. Ibid, at 404.

83. Brickley, JA, Smith, CW Jr and Zimmerman, JL ‘Business ethics and organizational architecture’ (2002) 26 J Banking & Fin 1821 at 1822.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

84. Eldar, S ‘Punishing organized crime leaders for the crimes of their subordinates’ (2010) 4 Crim L & Phil 183 at 185.Google Scholar

85. Brickley, JA, Smith, CW Jr and Zimmerman, JL ‘Corporate governance, ethics, and organizational architecture’ (2003) 15 J Appl Corp Fin 34 at 42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

86. Regan, MC Jr ‘Moral intuitions and organizational culture’ (2007) 51 St Louis U L J 941 at 942.Google Scholar

87. Brickley et al, above 83, at 1828.

88. Treviño, LK, Weaver, GR and Reynolds, SJ ‘Behavioral ethics in organizations: a review’ (2006) 32 J Mgmt 951 at 962.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

89. Harlow, above 62, at 124.

90. Schultz, PD ‘The morally accountable corporation: a postmodern approach to organizational responsibility’ (1996) 33 J Bus Comm 165 at 174.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

91. Jorg, N and Field, S ‘Corporate liability and manslaughter: should we be going Dutch?’ [1991] Crim L Rev 156 at 169.Google Scholar

92. Schein, EH ‘Coming to a new awareness of organizational culture’ (1984) 25 Sloan Mgmt Rev 3.Google Scholar

93. Schultz, above 90, at 172–173.

94. Alvesson, M and Berg, P-O Corporate Culture and Organizational Symbolism (Berlin: de Gruyter, 1992) p 77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

95. Morgan, G Images of Organization (Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 2006) p 211.Google Scholar

96. Schultz, above 90, at 169.

97. Sutherland, EH ‘White-collar criminality’ (1940) 5 Am Sociol Rev 1 at 11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

98. Coleman, JW ‘Toward and integrated theory of white-collar crime’ (1987) 93 Am J Sociol 406 at 423.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

99. Heugens, P ‘A neo-Weberian theory of the firm’ (2005) 26 Org Stud 547 at 560.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

100. Anderson, above 5, at 228.

101. Wiener, Y ‘Commitment in organizations: a normative view’ (1982) 7 Acad Mgmt Rev 418 at 421.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

102. Morgan, above 95, p 211.

103. Brief, AP, Buttram, RT and Dukerich, JM, ‘Collective corruption in the corporate world: toward a process model’ in Turner, ME (ed) Groups at Work: Theory and Research (Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2001) p 484.Google Scholar

104. Clegg, S, Kornberger, M and Rhodes, C ‘Organizational ethics, decision making, undecidability’ (2007) 55 Sociol Rev 393 at 406.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

105. Lounsbury, M and Ventresca, M ‘Social structure and organizations revisited’ in Lounsbury, M and Ventresca, M (eds) Social Structure and Organizations Revisited, Research in the Sociology of Organizations, vol 19 (Bingley, UK: Emerald Group, 2002) p 26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

106. Lounsbury and Ventresca, above 4, at 459.

107. Ripken, SK ‘Corporations are people too: a multi-dimensional approach to the corporate personhood puzzle’ (2009–2010) 15 Fordham J Corp & Fin L 97 at 136–137.Google Scholar

108. Jorg and Field, above 91, at 165.

109. Accessories and Abettors Act 1861, s 8.

110. R v Calhaem [1985] QB 808 CA at 813.

111. Ibid.

112. Dallas, LL ‘A preliminary inquiry into the responsibility of corporations and their officers and directors for corporate climate: the psychology of Enron's demise’ (2003–2004) 35 Rutgers L J 1 at 3.Google Scholar

113. Kozlowski and Klein, above 71, p 9.

114. Dallas, above 112, at 21.

115. Kozlowski, Swj and Bell, BF ‘Work groups and teams in organizations’ (2001) DigitalCommons@ILR, available at http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/articles/389/ Google Scholar (accessed 12 July 2014) at 6.

116. Kozlowski and Klein, above 71, p 10.

117. March, J and Simon, H Organizations (Oxford: Blackwell, 2nd edn, 1993) p 79.Google Scholar

118. Kozlowski and Bell, above 115, at 6.

119. Dallas, above 112, at 9.

120. Kozlowski and Bell, above 115, at 17.

121. Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007, s 1(4)(a).

122. Pratt et al, above 6, p 13.

123. Dickson et al, above 7, at 201.

124. Ibid, at 208.

125. Goodpaster, KE ‘The concept of corporate responsibility’ (1983) 2 J Bus Ethics 1 at 20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

126. Cavanagh, N ‘Corporate criminal liability: an assessment of the models of fault’ (2011) 75 J Crim L 414 at 424.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

127. Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007, s 1(4)(a).

128. Craig, R ‘Thou shall do no murder: a discussion paper on the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007’ (2009) 30 Company Law 17 at 19.Google Scholar

129. Nana, CN ‘Corporate criminal liability in South Africa: the need to look beyond vicarious liability’ (2011) 55 J Afr L 86 at 103.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

130. Explanatory notes to the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007, para 14.

131. Gobert ‘The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007’, above 43, at 414.

132. Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007, s 1(4)(c).

133. Ibid, s 1(3).

134. Skupski, above 47, at 310.

135. Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007, s 1(1)(a).

136. Cf Gobert ‘The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007’, above 43, at 418.

137. Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007, s 1(4)(c).

138. Pinto, J, Leana, CR and Pil, FK ‘Corrupt organizations or organizations of corrupt individuals? Two types of organization-level corruption’ (2008) 33 Acad Mgmt Rev 685.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

139. Luo, Y ‘An organizational perspective of corruption’ (2004) 1 Mgmt & Org Rev 119 at 126.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

140. Dickson et al, above 7, at 208.

141. Law Commission Legislating the Criminal Code, above 44, para 8.20.

142. Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007, s 8(3)(a).

143. [2011] EWCA Crim 1337, [2012] 1 Cr App R (S) 26.

144. R v Cotswold Geotechnical Holdings [2011] EWCA Crim 1337, [2012] 1 Cr App R (S) 26 at 157.

145. Cf Dobson, above 23, at 198.

146. Clough, above 12, at 296.