Self-study
P1
The use of criminal sanctions against corporations is well established, but the practice has recently come under fire from legal theorists who maintain that corporations should be held civilly rather than criminally liable for wrongdoing. ███
Intro topic / theorists' perspective ·
Corporations should be subject to civil liability, rather than criminal liability
Similarities between civil and criminal ·
Both punish, try to deter, hurt reputation
Theorists' support ·
Civil liability has benefits over criminal liability
Civil liability can punish in a more calibrated way. Criminal liability causes more harm to society. Civil liability is less expensive than criminal liability.
P2
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Author's response ·
Criminal liability provides stronger deterrent
Criminal liability can reach individual corporate officials. Also, it doesn't need an identifiable victim with enough money to bring a lawsuit. And, it shows society rejects the bad conduct.
P3
█████ █████ █████████ ███ ██ ███ ██████ ██ ████████ █████████ ███ ██ █████ ████ ███████████ ██████ █████████████ ██████ ████ ████████████ ███████████ ███ ███ ███████████ ██████ ██ ████████ ███████████ ██ █████ █████████ █████████ ███████████ ████ ████████ ████ ███████████ ██████ ████████████ ███ ████ ██████████ ██ ██████████ ███████ ████ █████████ ████ ███████████ ███ ███ ████ ██ ██████████ ████ ███ ██████ ████ ███ █████████████ ████ ████ ██████████ ██ █ ████████████ ██ ███ ████ ██ █ █████ ███████████ ████████ █████████████ ██████████ █████████ ███ ███ ██ ████ ████ ███ ██████████ ███ ███████ █████ ██ ██████ ██ ██████ ██████ ███████
Other theorists' perspective ·
Criminal liability OK, but punish individuals
Individuals are more responsive to deterrence. Fines against a corporation punish the public by causing the corporation to raise prices.
P4
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Author's response ·
Criminal liability against corporations, too
Can be difficult to identify which individuals to punish. Corporations might pay individuals to take the blame. Punishing corporations motivates shareholders to push for better conduct.
Passage Style
Critique or debate
23.
It can be inferred from ███ ███████ ████ █████ █████████ ███ █████████ ███ ███ ██ █████ ██████ ████ ████████ █████████ ██ ██████ █████████ ██████████ ███████ ████
a
corporate criminal liability ████████ ██ █████████ ███ ██████████ █████████ █████████ ██ ███████ ████ ██████████
The theorists in P1 do not make any comment about the deterrent effect on individuals. Don’t mix up the theorists in P1 with the theorists in P3.
b
there are more ██████████ ███████████ ██ ████████ ███ ████ █████ ██████ ██
The theorists do not argue that there are more procedural protections in criminal law than there “should” be. They do argue that the greater procedural protections in criminal law make deterrence through prosecution more expensive than deterrence through civil liability. But they don’t say that there “should” be fewer procedural protections.
c
censuring wrongdoing is ███ ███ ████ ████████ ██ ████████ ███
The theorists in P1 don’t argue that censuring wrongdoing isn’t the main function of criminal law.
d
the costs inflicted ██ ████████████ ██ ████████ ███████████ ███ ███████████████ ████ ██ ████ █████
e
in most cases █████ █████████ ███████ █ ███████████ ██ ███ ████ ████ █████████████ ██████████
Unsupported. Although the theorists in P1 believe criminal liability causes “greater” loss of reputation, this doesn’t imply they think civil liability doesn’t harm reputation in most cases. Maybe it causes some harm, but just not as much as criminal liability.