Criminal Enterprise

by Christopher Harding

Overview

This is a study of agency in the field of criminal liability, considering the respective roles of individuals and organisations and the allocation of criminal responsibility to these different kinds of actor. The issue of criminal responsibility, which is informed by both the sociological analysis of conduct and by ethical considerations of responsibility, provides an important and revealing focus for discussion. Criminal Enterprise analyses criminal responsibility through three main types of organisation: corporate actors in the field of business activity, states and governments, and delinquent or criminal organisations; each of which is of contemporary significance. This analysis focuses on three particular issues:

• the theory of individual and corporate (or organisational) responsibility
• the attribution of legal personality, as a particular form of identity, in theory and across jurisdictions and legal orders
• the internal practice and operation of complex organisations and corporate actors and how an understanding of this sociology of organisations should be used in the construction of legal agency in the field of criminal law.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781138001954
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	08/15/2014
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Christopher Harding is Professor of Law at Aberystwyth University, Wales.

Table of Contents

Preface 1. Introduction: searching for the responsible criminal actor Part I: Theory - the individual-organisation dilemma Introductory note 2. The organisation in contemporary society 3. Agency: the philosophy of the collective 4. Legal routes to responsibility 5. Models of responsibility Part II: Contexts - paradigmatic sites for individual and organisational interaction Introductory note 6. Human or corporate? Allocating responsibility for business conspiracy 7. Delinquency within structures of governance 8. The legal control of criminal organisations Part III: Criminal organisation and criminal enterprise Introductory note 9. The organisation as an autonomous criminal actor 10. The criminal enterprise as facilitating framework