DOI: 10.5176/2251-3809_LRPP19.187
Authors: Ms. S.M.Anuruddika G.Senevirathne
Abstract: Modern society comprises with both natural persons and legal persons. In the legal context, corporations simply become legal persons by means acquiring corporate legal personality through statutory registration. Nevertheless, they cannot be convict as criminals that easily as natural persons. Thus, proper conduct of corporates citizens in the commercialized world cannot be underestimate. But despite many local and international series of corporate scandals are increasingly recorded and nonetheless investigations are carried out on those corporate crimes, notably the present domestic and international corporate crimes trends reveal that only fewer in the years ahead will be indicted. Thus, it is vital to have a serious look on legal underpinnings of objectives, criteria, practical grappling pertains to prosecution of corporate criminal liability and surrounding policy issues for the given non-prosecution of corporations. History repeatedly evident that corporate crimes have direct and ripple effect not only on shareholders, directors, employees, creditors but also on greater community, economy as well as environment. Although corporate criminal liability forms a part of Sri Lankan laws it is observant that it does not adequately apply or utilize to prosecute the domestic corporate crimes. The objective of this writing is to shed some light on this dramatic issue on pertains to under utilization of corporate criminal liability principle by analyzing the present inertia of corporate criminal liability on dual corporate perspectives, both corporate as a fiction and as a legal person based on multiple comparative jurisdictional approaches.
Keywords: corporate legal personality, corporate criminal liability, mens rea
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