COMPARATIVE STUDY OF CORPORATE CRIMINAL LIABILITY IN INDIA, UNITED KINGDOM, AND UNITED STATES
AUTHOR – SHUBHANGI ARYA* & DR. ASHISH SINGHAL**
* LL.M. STUDENT AT ICFAI, DEHRADUN
** PROFESSOR AT ICFAI, DEHRADUN
BEST CITATION – SHUBHANGI ARYA & DR. ASHISH SINGHAL, COMPARATIVE STUDY OF CORPORATE CRIMINAL LIABILITY IN INDIA, UNITED KINGDOM, AND UNITED STATES, INDIAN JOURNAL OF LEGAL REVIEW (IJLR), 6 (4) OF 2026, PG. 1013-1023, APIS – 3920 – 0001 & ISSN – 2583-2344
ABSTRACT
The idea of corporate criminal liability (CGL) has been employed to develop a point of focus in regulating corporate malpractices in the modern legal systems that have been characterized by globalisation, technology and complex systems of organisation. In the past criminal law was restricted to natural persons only whereby it is founded on the requirement to have mens rea, which is the intent to be guilty. Corporations are legal persons and they were believed to have no capacity to cultivate such intention. However as the years went by this perception of the old fashioned has been eroded by the increasing realization that corporations are run by people whose actions can be attributed to the organization. The paper gives a comparison study detailing the Indian, United Kingdom and the United States criminal liability on corporates. It explores the conceptual premises of corporate liability such as identification, vicarious liability and corporate culture model. The paper also examines the evolution of the law within such jurisdictions in regard to statutes and landmark court cases.[1]
The US possesses a broad and enforcement-based paradigm based on respondeat superior and the United Kingdom has long adhered to the doctrine of restrictive identification but is moving towards the lean of failure to prevent framework. Having adopted the common law tradition, India has developed its structure primarily through the judicial interpretation, yet, it is not able to enforce it and the clarity of the doctrines. The paper will critically evaluate these strategies and propose a hybrid scheme in integrating the attribution approach, the organizational fault approach and the compliance based liability as a way of facilitating the effectiveness of corporate accountability.[2]
[1] Arlen, J. (2012). Corporate criminal liability: Theory and evidence. Research Handbook on the Economics of Criminal Law, 144–203.
[2] U.S. Department of Justice. (2020). Justice manual: Principles of federal prosecution of business organizations.