Corporate Criminal Liability : Two Nordic Solutions

• In this chapter, the systems of Corporate Criminal Liability in four Nordic jurisdictions are examined, as interesting examples of the challenges - and possibilities - of Corporate Criminal Liability. It is argued that a credible model of attributing action to the company must be established, if a criminal sanction against a company is to be understood as a punishment in the sense that it attributes blame. In that regard, attribution can be based either on identification or on a concept of corporate negligence. Identification, where the actions of a representative of a company are attributed directly to the company, does not offer any considerable normative challenges. When corporate negligence is considered, however, the Nordic countries differ in an interesting way. Denmark and Norway share a system of primary corporate criminal liability, where the actions of several individuals can be cumulated and attributed to the company in a way where the company appears to be a genuine actor. Once cumulated, there is very limited room for the company to argue that it has not acted negligently. Sweden and Finland, on the other hand, in principle understand Corporate Criminal Liability as accessory to the crimes of individuals. In order to attribute such crimes, a test of corporate negligence is then employed, where it is determined whether the company has negligently failed to prevent the crimes of the individuals. While the accessory solution in Sweden and Finland appears to be an unnecessary limitation, the negligence test employed in those jurisdictions appears as an interesting model for understanding what it might mean to attribute blame to a company in the Criminal Law, and, in a deeper sense, for a concept of corporate guilt.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Juridik (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Law (hsv//eng)

Keyword

corporate criminal liability

corporate attribution

blame

primary liability

accessory liability

identification

corporate negligence

corporate guilt

Criminal Law

Straffrätt

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kap (subject category)