ENVIRONMENTAL LAW

ANALYSIS ON CORPORATE
CRIMINAL LIABILITY
 WHAT IS CORPORATE CRIMINAL
LIABILITY?
• Criminal Liability is the quality or state of
being legally obligated or accountable; legally
responsible to another or to society which is
enforceable by criminal punishment. And
therefore, Corporate Criminal Liability means
the extent to which a Corporation as a legal
person can be held criminally liable for its acts
and omissions and for those of the natural
persons employed by it.
CAN A COMPANY BE CRIMIANALLY
LIABLE?
The corporate criminal liability in India is
governed by the norms of the vicarious
liability, as distinct from the scenarios in which
the statutory offence specifically makes the
company liable for that particular offence. The
concept of corporate liability is closely
concerned with the corporate governance
policy of an organization. Thus it can be made
liable.
 TWIN MODEL OF CORPORATE
CRIMINAL LIABILITY
DERIVATIVE MODEL
• This model is individual
centred model. It derives to
attach the liability to the
corporation only because an
individual connected to the
corporation incurred some
liability for which the
individual is to be punished,
but since it is connected to the
corporation the liability is put
on the corporation to having
that individual with it and
letting it incurred some
liability
ORGANIZATIONAL MODEL
• Organizational model takes
corporation into consideration.
Offences require mental state
(mens rea) to commit a crime
along with physical act (actus
reus), but the problem that
arises while holding
corporations criminally liable is
how a corporation which is
juristic person could possess
requisite mental state to
commit a crime.
 HISTORY AND GROWTH
• Until the early 19th century, the courts relied on the civil
liability concept of vicarious liability to impute criminal
liability on the company. Under the principle of respondent
superior, the company was held liable for the acts of the
agent. However England codified Corporate criminal
liability in 19th century. Development in has been uniform
and not along the same trajectory. From endorsing the civil
liability to implicate companies to providing complete
immunity and then to giving a wide ambit to the
identification principle and then restricting it once again to
include only top rung individuals is indicative of how the
development in this area of law kept changing back and
forth like a pendulum rather than progressing towards a
particular direction.
VICARIOUS LIABILITY