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
25.
It can be inferred from ███ ███████ ████ █████ ███ ███████ ███ ████████ ███████████ ██ ███████████ ██████ ████████████ ██████ ████ ███ ████████ ███████████ ██ ████████████ ███████ ████
a
shareholders generally do ███ ████ ███ █████ ██ █████████ █ ███████████ ██ ███████ ████ ██████████
There’s no evidence that the theorists in P3 think shareholders don’t have the power to influence a corporation. Although the theorists do view the punishment of a corporation as unfairly punishing shareholders, this doesn’t imply that the theorists think shareholders can’t influence a corporation’s actions.
b
corporate employees have █████████ ██ ███████ ████ ██████████ ████ ██ ████ ███ ███████ ██ ██████████ ████████ ███████████
There’s no evidence that the theorists in P3 think criminal prosecution is required in order for individuals to have an incentive to refrain from wrongdoing. Although they think individuals are more responsive to deterrence because they fear prosecution, this doesn’t imply they believe prosecution is required for that deterrent effect. Maybe individuals would still be deterred by the chance of being reprimanded by the corporation or by being fired after being caught.
c
it is more █████████ ██ █████████ █ ███████████ ███ ██████████ ████ ██ ██ ██ █████████ ██ ██████████ ██████ ████ ███████████
The theorists believe individuals are more responsive to deterrence than corporations are. This doesn’t imply the theorists think it’s more difficult to prosecute a corporation. Maybe they think the difficulty of prosecuting corporations and individuals is equal, but individuals respond more to prosecution than corporations do.
d
it is unjust ███ ███ ██████ ██ ████ ██ ████ ███████ ██████ ███████ ███████ ███ █████ ████████ ██ █ ███████████ ██ █ ██████ ██ ████████ ███████████
e
corporate wrongdoing rarely █████ ██ ████████████ ██████ ████ ███ █████████ █████████ ██ ███
The theorists in P3 do not comment on whether wrongdoing harms identifiable victims with the resources necessary to bring a lawsuit. Don’t confuse P3 with P2.