Corporate Manslaughter and Regulatory Reform

by Almond, Paul

• ISBN13: 9780230274525
• ISBN10: 0230274528
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2013-01-25
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

Corporate Manslaughter and Regulatory Reform provides an innovative account of the emergence of new corporate manslaughter offences to criminalize deaths in the workplace during the last twenty years. This has occurred in many different national jurisdictions, but this book shows how these developments can be understood as a coherent phenomenon. It identifies the historical and legal origins of the instrumentalism that has limited the ability of health and safety regulation to respond effectively to work-related death cases, and explains how and why criminal law came to be used as a means of addressing these limitations by reinforcing the moral values underpinning regulation. The contemporary neo-liberal political context is shown to have posed fundamental challenges to systems of safety regulation, and created an environment in which the criminal law is seen as an effective and desirable means of delivering important moral and symbolic messages that regulation cannot communicate effectively itself.

Author Biography

PAUL ALMOND is a senior lecturer in Law at the University of Reading, UK. He completed his PhD at the University of Birmingham in 2004, focusing on the enforcement of work-related fatality cases. He has subsequently published numerous journal articles about the enforcement of health and safety regulation.

Table of Contents

List of Cases List of Statutory MaterialAuthor Preface Series PrefaceAn Introduction to Work-Related Deaths Plan of the Book PART I: THE SHIFT FROM "REGULATION" TO "CRIME" Defining the Problem of Work-Related Deaths Measuring the Problem of Work-Related Deaths The Public Importance of Work-Related Deaths Regulatory Enforcement Practices Following Work-Related Deaths Corporate Manslaughter Reform in the UK PART II: THE INTERNATIONAL "CORPORATE MANSLAUGHTER" PHENOMENON Model One: Direct Corporate Liability for Homicide Offences Model Two: Attributed Corporate Liability for Homicide Offences Model Three: No Attributed Corporate Liability for Homicide Offences Model Four: No Corporate Criminal Liability Conclusion PART III: WORK-RELATED DEATHS AS SYMBOLIC EVENTS Theorising the Role of Regulatory Enforcement The Instrumentalism of Regulatory Enforcement Towards a Communicative Understanding of Enforcement Habermas and Regulatory Enforcement PART IV: REGULATING WORK-RELATED DEATH – A HISTORY The First Wave: Regulation and Legal Personhood The Early Second Wave: Regulation and the State The Late Second Wave: Regulation and the Public Interest The Third Wave: Regulation and Welfare Conclusion PART V: CRIMINALISING WORK-RELATED DEATH Differentiating Crime and Regulation Developing an Ambiguous "Corporate Criminal Law" The Emergence of a Corporate Crime Discourse From Crime to Regulation, From Regulation to Crime The Appeal of the Criminal LawPART VI: THE PURPOSE OF CORPORATE HOMICIDE LIABILITY The Normative Gap Within Health and Safety Regulation Understanding "True" Public Attitudes Towards Work-Related Death The Legitimatory Functions of Criminalization What "Values" Does a Corporate Manslaughter Offence Pursue?PART VII: THE LIMITS OF CORPORATE MANSLAUGHTER REFORMS The Instrumental Limits of Corporate Manslaughter Corporate Manslaughter as "Pure Symbolism?" Corporate Manslaughter as "Penal Populism?" Corporate Manslaughter as "Governing Through Crime?" Corporate Manslaughter as an "Imperfect Solution?" Conclusions Notes Bibliography Index