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
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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
21.
Which one of the following ████ ██████████ █████████ ███ ████ █████ ██ ███ ████████
a
Although the use ██ ████████ █████████ ███████ ████████████ ███ ████████ █████ ██████████ ██ ███████ ███ ████ █████████ ███ ██ █████████ █████████ ███████████
This best captures the author’s main point as explained above.
b
While civil sanctions ███████ ████████████ █████ ██ ████ ██████████████ ████ ████████ ██████████ ██ ██ █████████ ██ ████████ ███████ ██ █████████ ██████████ ███ ████ ███ █████████ ██ ████ █████ ██████
This is too narrow to be the main point. Any comment on the difficulty of identifying victims of corporate wrongdoing is used to support the broader point that civil liability isn’t as effective as criminal liability for corporations in deterring bad conduct.
c
Neither civil sanctions ███████ ████████████ ███ ████████ █████████ ███████ ███████████ ██████ ████████████ ███ ███████ ██ █████████ █████████ ███████████
The author never suggests that civil liability against corporations and criminal liability against individuals are incapable of deterring corporate wrongdoing. They can, but criminal liability against corporations is more effective.
d
The best way ██ ██████ ████ ████████████ ███████ █████ █████████ ██ ██ ███ ████████ █████████ ███████ ████ ████████████ ███ ███████████ ██████ █████████████
The author doesn’t suggest that criminal liability against individuals within corporations is part of the best way to ensure improved practices.
e
The use of ████████ █████████ ███████ ███████████ ██████ ████████████ ██ ██████████ ██ ███ ███ ██ █████ █████████ ███████ ███ ██████ █████ ██ ███████ ██████████ ███████████
This doesn’t capture the author’s point that criminal sanctions against corporations are the best way to deter corporate misconduct. Also, we don’t know what the author prefers between criminal sanctions against individuals and civil sanctions against individuals/corporations.