Journal of Law and Criminal Justice

Corporate Criminal Liability: Call for a New Legal Regime in Nigeria
Samson Erhaze, Daud Momodu

Abstract
The increasingly relevant role that corporations assume in all aspects of modern life is correspondingly attended by their increased participation in criminal activities that result in loss of lives and properties. However, there is a conundrum created by the artificiality of corporations as they do not easily lend themselves to existing criminal laws designed with human actors in mind. The current Nigerian law on corporate criminal liability is disquietingly deficient. The extant law only provides room for civil recompense in the event of tragedies such as the recent petrol tankers explosions in different parts of Nigeria which claimed hundreds of lives. This paper emphasizes the need to make a radical departure from the present position of the law which is fashioned along the old English legal system to the effect that corporations could only be criminally held liable for very limited offences. The paper, while considering the extant position in the UK by virtue of the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act, 2007, calls for a review of our laws, and more particularly, calls for the expedited passage of the Corporate Manslaughter Bill, 2010 into law if the menace of corporate killings is to be properly confronted in Nigeria.

Full Text: PDF     DOI: 10.15640/jlcj.v3n2a6