Corporate liability persons, offences

There has been a significant shift towards the development of corporate criminal liability in recent years. The notion of corporate homicide has taken hold in a range of national jurisdictions, and the spread of corporate criminal liability as a conceptual tool of supranational market constitution makes it likely that it will spread further in future. But specific offences for this pinpose are a rarity, and although many countries allow corporations to bear criminal responsibility, this does not necessarily extend to offences against the person, such as manslaughter. But the notion of corporate homicide is, at least in theory, a feature of many more national jiuisdictions than was the case 15 or 20 years ago. In identifying this trend, we are led to several important conclusions. Firstly, almost no coimtry eschews corporate liability completely many national jurisdictions have an explicitly criminal system, and others have systems which perform criminal functions but are conceptualised as administrative or quasi-administrative. The practical distinctions between criminal and non-criminal systems are often very fine indeed there are administrative penalties (such as those in operation in Italy)... 

Section 37 Personal liability of directors Where an offence is committed by a body corporate or can be attributable to any neglect of a director or other senior officer of the body, both that body and the person are liable to prosecution. 

As previously discussed senior managers and directors have specific personal liabilities placed upon them by the HSWA and the RRFSO. Section 37 of the HSWA and Article 32(8) RRFSO allow that, in addition to the liability of a corporate body to be prosecuted for a breach of statutory duty, an individual manager may also be prosecuted for the same offence. 

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