Sylvia Rich (University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law) has posted Corporate Criminals and Punishment Theory ((2016) Canadian Journal of Law & Jurisprudence, 29, pp 97-118) on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
Sentencing principles for corporations should be consonant with those for individuals, and if they are not, there should be good reasons for the divergence. Theories of punishment and sentencing are also theories of how we justify using the coercive power of the state to punish people. This article considers how corporate entities should be treated under retributivism, a theory of punishment that holds that offenders deserve to be punished in proportion to their blameworthiness. I argue that corporations have the capacity to understand moral matters and make moral judgments, and retributivism must be included as a component principle in corporate sentencing.
Highly recommended.
This is not my field, but after reading this, I wonder if, from the notion that there are proper group agents, it might follow that corporations qua group agents can receive true punishment. So, for example, a corporation might be placed in receivership for a period of years, during which period the receive would operate the corporation for the public good. Lots would need to be said about how the group agent would be able to understand the receivership as punishment, but I can see several strategies for making this out. Just a stray thought.
