Research On Corporate Crime And Corporate Criminal Liability In Australia

Corporate crime issue is very important in the theory of criminal law, and of great significance in the legal practice. Although the legislation of corporate crime in Australia based on common law of Britain, since time passed away, the legislation and theories on corporate crime and corporate criminal liability in Australia gradually form their own characteristics after many years'development, and set up examples for other countries.. This article takes a further discussion about corporate crime and corporate criminal liability in Australia, hoping that it will do some contribution to relevant theoretical study and legal practice in our country.This Article is made up of four sections, including introduction, two chapters and epilogue.The introduction section reviews the development of legislation about corporate crime at first, then points out that the problems of corporate crime are more and more serious and have become a cosmopolitan issue. Not only it has been an obvious trend for most countries to legislate for corporate crime and corporate criminal liability, but also many international organizations, such as U.N., European Union and OECD regard it as an important subject, and enact to control the corporate crime.Chapter One concerns"corporate crime in Australia". Firstly, this article introduces the basic concept of corporate crime in Australia, and analyzes three main characteristics of corporate crime. Secondly, basing on the crime constitution theory of criminal law in Australia, this article expounds the following two prerequisites for corporate crime: conduct elements and mental elements. Thirdly, associated with America and Canada, this article introduces the general areas of corporate crime in Australia, and points out that in recent years, developments in corporate crime have occurred in three main areas------environment protection, occupational health and safety, and consumer protection. Fourthly, this article introduces the available defenses from criminal charges in the cases of corporate crime, as well as exceptional situations in which the defenses can not be cited. Finally, this article carries on some brief analysis on several practical questions about corporate crime in Australia.Chapter Two concerns"corporate criminal liability". After simple introduction of the basic theories in Britain and America, this article focuses on analyzing various theories of corporate criminal liability in Australia, including the identification theory, vicarious liability theory, the aggregation theory, the reactive liability theory and the corporate culture theory. At the same time, this article briefly introduces a quite influential new theory, appeared in recent years. The new theory was named"the organizational entity liability theory". At last, the author elaborates the way to realize corporate criminal liability in Australia——"dual punishment system"as the principle and sentences fine as the main penalty.The epilogue section concerns the characteristics of the development of legislation and theories on corporate crime and corporate criminal liability in Australia. The characteristics include: (1) it mostly inherited from the English law, but rapidly developed and gently became one of the successful examples in this area; (2) various theories for corporate criminal liability in Australia have be developing fast and gradually to be perfect; (3) a number of specific Acts have been amended recently to exclude offences under those Acts from the aegis of the articles of"corporate criminal responsibility"of the Criminal Code, which indicates that there exists some resistance for Australia to impose criminal responsibility on the corporate.