A Glaring Omission? Corporate Liability for Negligent Manslaughter

By Jonathan Clough

There have been increasing calls for corporate manslaughter prosecutions as part of the overall regulation of workplace safety.

Despite a number of prosecutions, particularly in the UK, none has been successful against medium to large corporations. The principal reason for this is the so-called "identification doctrine", which requires the identification of acts by a senior officer as those of the corporation itself. While some jurisdictions have pursued legislative reform, the ACT is the only Australian jurisdiction to have enacted a specific offence of "industrial manslaughter". Continued reliance on the common law as it is currently applied means that the threat of a successful manslaughter prosecution against larger corporations is remote. Clough argues that negligent manslaughter by omission may provide an effective alternative basis for corporate liability for homicide, which would avoid problems of identification and reflect organisational fault.

(Australian Journal of Labour Law; vol 20, no.1, April 2007. pp29-52)