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Historical Development of Corporate Criminal Liability

NCJ Number
93353
Journal
Criminology Volume: 22 Issue: 1 Dated: (February 1984) Pages: 3-17
Author(s)
T J Bernard
Date Published
1984
Length
15 pages
Annotation
The application of criminal liability to corporations grew out of a minor common law doctrine that masters were criminally liable if their servants created a public nuisance by throwing something out of the house onto the street.
Abstract
The expansion of that doctrine to full corporate criminal liability was primarily the result of judicial interpretation of common law and existing statutory laws, rather than the result of any deliberate legislative action. Civil law countries, lacking the tradition of judicial interpretation, have never developed the concept of corporate criminality. Corporate criminal liability will probably continue to expand in common law countries, regardless of its merits. (Publisher abstract)

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