Corporate attribution – principled simplicity
In its Discussion Paper on Australia’s corporate criminal responsibility regime, the ALRC proposes a simplified method for attributing criminal responsibility to corporations. What follows is a short summary and explanation of the key principles underlying that proposal. The law treats corporations as ‘people’. Therefore, the prohibitions imposed on people are usually applicable for both humans …
News/Media Release
Read moreWhen Should Officers be Liable for Corporate Crime?
Research and consultations in the course of the ALRC’s Inquiry into Corporate Criminal Responsibility have highlighted the important role played by senior management in ensuring compliance throughout the different parts of a corporation. While corporations can be ‘a person’ under law, they are also made up of individuals – some of whom have authority and …
News/Media Release
Read moreEnsuring appropriate and effective regulation of corporations: A recalibration of Australian corporate regulation
In its Discussion Paper on Australia’s corporate criminal responsibility regime released on 15 November 2019, the ALRC proposes a new model of corporate regulation that aims to achieve more appropriate and effective regulation of corporations. Central to this is the adoption of a principled distinction between the use of criminal and civil regulation. A lack …
News/Media Release
Read moreALRC Corporate Crime – Discussion Paper
The Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) today released a Discussion Paper, Corporate Criminal Responsibility (DP 87). Building on the work of the Hayne Royal Commission, the ALRC has found that Commonwealth criminal law as it applies to corporations is impenetrably complex and in need of significant reform. There is an overregulation by the criminal law …
News/Media Release
Read moreDiscussion Paper 87
The ALRC seeks stakeholder submissions on 23 proposals for reform to the Commonwealth’s corporate criminal law regime, and asks 11 questions on particular areas of reform. The Discussion Paper addresses a number of aspects of corporate criminal liability, including:
• the principled division between criminal offences and civil penalty provisions;
• the method for attributing criminal liability to corporations;
• individual liability for corporate offences;
• deferred prosecution agreements;
• penalties and the sentencing process;
• illegal phoenix activity (deliberate liquidation with the intent to avoid creditors and continue operations through a new entity); and
• the implications of the transnational nature of business and extraterritorial offences.
Publications
Read moreSydney Seminar: Interrogating the English approach to prosecuting economic crime
Places are limited! To confirm your attendance please register here:
News/Media Release
Read moreDeodands and Frankpledges!
While there are clear commercial and economic benefits as a result of the creation of the corporation, the construction of a legal artifice of ‘the legal person’ raises fundamental questions about the applicability of the criminal law to that artifice. A corporation cannot be sent to jail. It has no soul that may be damned.
News/Media Release
Read moreBe Civil not Criminal: The Role of the Criminal law in the Regulatory Pyramid
— The reality we have found is that when you actually map the criminal laws which are applicable to corporations, what you find is much closer to a rhomboid than a neat pyramid. The scope and scale and pervasiveness of criminal offences which are potentially applicable to corporations, is shocking. — Read Venetia’s full speech …
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Read moreSubmissions
Comments on Terms of Reference 1. Not published 2. Professor L Campbell 3. Associate Professor J Overland 4. Not published 5. Not published 6. Australian Restructuring Insolvency & Turnaround Association (ARITA) 7. McCullough Robertson 8. Dr R Ivory 9. Business Council of Australia 10. Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD) 11. Law Council of Australia …
Inquiries
Read moreNew ALRC Inquiries
new_tor_media_release_11_4_19_2.pdfNew Terms of ReferenceOn 10 April 2019, the Attorney-General of Australia, the Hon Christian Porter MP, released the Terms of Reference for two new ALRC inquiries.Religious Freedoms InquiryThe ALRC has been asked to conduct an inquiry into the framework of religious exemptions in Commonwealth, State and Territory anti-discrimination legislation. This Inquiry has been referred to …
News/Media Release
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