Turning points of corporate manslaughter reform in England and Wales from 1912 to 1999

Patman, CA

Abstract

Since the first attempt to indict a corporation for gross negligence manslaughter in the 1920’s, legal reform surrounding corporate manslaughter has been discussed in political and legal arenas. This research answers the question of whether missed opportunities of corporate manslaughter reform in England and Wales were inhibited by the same factors between 1912 and 1999.

This will be achieved using a legal research strategy that embraces doctrinal law, legal history and archival research which will in turn establish seven junctures of corporate manslaughter reform. By addressing the events and disasters that occurred around these seven corporate manslaughter reform opportunities, it will be shown that there are consistent factors which inhibited corporate manslaughter reform in the twentieth century.

The outcome of these findings is used to set out the methodological and epistemological stance associated with corporate manslaughter reform. Consequently, judicial reasoning and the use of post-disaster reactive legislation inhibited the type of legal reform considered at the expense of other opportunities which would have reflected the changing corporate structure of the twenty-first century.

The impact of those same features on preferred change resulted in the introduction of the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 in April 2008.
Consequently, by evidencing the impact of judicial reasoning and post-disaster reactive legislation at particular of corporate manslaughter reform crossroads between 1912 and 1999, the research argues that the law will remain defective due to the lack of successful prosecutions against large corporations, despite the introduction of the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007.

Until the inhibiting impact of judicial reasoning and the use of post-disaster reactive legislation – which prevent corporate manslaughter reform – are addressed and overcome, it will not be possible to attain the ideal doctrine of corporate manslaughter reform and there will be no successful prosecution for the offence of corporate manslaughter regardless of the size, structure and type of corporation involved.

Citation

Patman, C. (in press). Turning points of corporate manslaughter reform in England and Wales from 1912 to 1999. (Thesis). University of Salford

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Acceptance Date: Sep 28, 2018
• Deposit Date: Oct 5, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 29, 2024