CORPORATE MANSLAUGHTER: WHO BEARS RESPONSIBILITY - Dissertation Example

Often, a desire to cut costs and to increase profits motivates many corporate entities to neglect health, safety and care for the human person to cause accidents and deaths that are due to recklessness or negligence. It is possible to charge a natural human person with manslaughter depending on the actus reus and the mens rea associated with an act in accordance with the principle of actus non facit reum, nisi mens sit rea, which roughly translates into ‘an act does not make a person guilty, unless their mind is also guilty’.

However, assigning responsibility for deaths involving legal entities and corporations is more complex because a legal entity that is a legal fiction cannot kill humans by itself. This dissertation presents a discussion about responsibility for the crime of corporate manslaughter, emphasising United Kingdom law, to conclude that it is better and far more suited for a society to hold corporate legal entities responsible for the crime of corporate manslaughter, in addition to assigning responsibility to ‘controlling minds’ and individuals if evidence exists for individual wrongdoing.

Table of Statutes Factory Act 1833 Health and Morals of Apprentices Act of 1802 Health and Safety Offences Act 2008 Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Act 2008 The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act of 2007 The Criminal Law Act 1827 The Employers’ Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969 The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 Table of European Community Legislation The European Convention on Human Rights Table of Cases Green v. Deutsche Bank [2006] EWHC 1898 QB Pp. 79 Grimshaw v Ford Pinto (1981) (US - California) Pp.66, 68.89, 90 H L Bolton (Engineering) Co Ltd v P J Graham and Sons Ltd [1957] 1 QB 159 Pp.

42 HSE Prosecution Case 4060588 4/7/07 Pp. 68 J in R v ICR Haulage Co Ltd [1944] KB Pp. 41 Lingard v. HM Prison Service [2004] ET Case No. 1802862/04 Pp. 84 Majrowski v. Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Trust [2006] UKHL 34 Pp. 79 Meridian Global Funds Management Asia Ltd v Securities Commission [1995] 2 AC 500 at 507 Pp. 58 Moore v Bresler Ltd [1944] 2 All ER 515 Pp. 43 R v Cotswold Geotechnical (Holdings) Ltd [15.2.11] Pp. 70, 89, 90, 107 R v Church [1966] 1 QB 59 Pp. 46 R v Cory Brothers and Co [1927] 1 KB 810 Pp.

41 R v Robert Millar (Contractors) Ltd [1970] 2 QB 54 Pp. 41 R v. Hatton Traffic Management (2006) EWCA Crim 1156 Pp. 81, 82 R v. Northern Star Mining Construction Co. Ltd (1 February 1965, unreported) Pp. 4, 5 R. v. P & O Ferries (Dover) Ltd (1991) 93 Cr App Rep 72 Pp. 88 Salomon v. A Salomon & Co Ltd [1897] AC 22 Pp. 4 Saunders