Plans to amend the law regarding corporate criminal liability are assessed by Aziz Rahman and Francesca Cassidy-Taylor

The potentially far-reaching effects of the recently-announced amendment to the law on corporate criminal liability were considered in detail by Aziz Rahman and Francesca Cassidy-Taylor.

In an article, which was published by FT Advisor,  Aziz and Francesca outline the significance of the change that will see senior managers considered to be the ‘directing mind and will’ of a business – the concept most commonly referred to as the ‘identification principle’. 

They state that this change, which has been added to the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill, is a major reform to the identification doctrine. It is, they argue, a targeting of corporates in an attempt to enhance accountability, improve transparency and ensure better business behaviour across all business sectors.

Aziz and Francesca explain that the identification principle in its current form has offered large corporations the opportunity to evade liability for criminal conduct, as their complex management structures have made it hard for investigators to identify individual decision makers.  But the change will prevent this in the future, although its effectiveness may depend on defence lawyers’ challenges to its use,  the resources available to enforcement agencies and their willingness to go down the prosecution route.

The full article can be read here.

Featured at: FT Advisor