Corporate law Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 7500 words

Corporate law - Coursework Example The announcement confronted disparate reactions. Some applauded the government's plans, while others stringently opposed them, questioning the very need for the adoption of a corporate manslaughter bill. A third group maintained the exigencies of designing and passing into legislature a corporate manslaughter bill but voiced doubt over the proposed bill's capacity to address the problem. The imperatives of bestowing legal recognition upon corporate manslaughter, on holding corporate entities criminally liable for acts/cases of unintentional manslaughter, and the capacity of the proposed bill to effectively address the defined problem, comprise some of the dissertation's core concerns. Since the 1980s many companies in the U.K. ... 1.1 Research Background Since the 1980s many companies in the U.K. have been exposed to charges of corporate manslaughter - many disasters and incidents of death involving corporations such as Piper Alpha explosion, Hillsborough Stadium disaster, the capsize of the Herald of Free Enterprise etc., which were initially deemed and labelled as tragic 'accidents,' at the most attributable to the unlawful action of individuals, were later proved to be more a result of corporate malfeasance than individual offence.1 But, for various reasons including the absence of an appropriate law for tackling the offence; the application of flawed criminal law doctrines, ill-suited to corporate criminality; the absence of judicial and political commitment etc, in almost all the major cases, the criminal charges against the corporations failed at the prosecution stage itself. Beyond effective social and legal control, large and powerful corporations continue to inflict severe harm to society through negligent and/or reckless la w breaking. The rising public consternation about the consequences of corporate negligence and the persistent call for appropriate criminal justice intervention for effectively tackling corporate malfeasance has received significant impetus from the government during the past decade, as new and more effective steps for prosecuting companies are explored - the introduction of the new and separate offence of "corporate killing" and the introduction of draft Corporate Manslaughter Bill in 2005 may be considered as major steps in this direction. Nonetheless, the lack of urgency demonstrated by the British Government in enacting into law the 'corporate killing' offence is appalling - first