Journal article
Clockwork Corporations: A Character Theory of Corporate Punishment
Iowa law review, Vol.103(2), pp.507-569
01/01/2018
Abstract
Retribution and deterrence currently drive the politics and scholarship of corporate criminal law. Since the potential harms and private gains of corporate crime are so large, corporate punishment under these theories must be exacting . . . too exacting. In fact, it is difficult under current law to punish many corporations formally without killing them. Ironically, this fact leads to the under-punishment of corporations. Prosecutors-understandably hesitant to shutter some of the country's largest economic engines-increasingly offer corporations deferred prosecution agreements in lieu of charges and trial.
This Article considers corporate punishment for the first time from the framework of a third major theory of punishment-character theory. Character theories of punishment focus first and foremost on instilling good character and civic virtue. Criminal law scholars have largely marginalized character theory because it struggles as a suitable framework for individual punishment. But the practical and moral problems character theory faces in the individual context do not arise with the same force for corporations. In fact, character theory offers the possibility of punishing corporations in a way that preserves and enhances the social value they create while removing the structural defects that lead to criminal conduct. Along the way, the Article defends some heterodox proposals, including abolishing the corporate fine and allowing sentencing judges to balance the need to punish against noncriminal aspects of a corporate defendants' "character."
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Clockwork Corporations: A Character Theory of Corporate Punishment
- Creators
- Mihailis E. Diamantis - Univ Iowa, Coll Law, Iowa City, IA 52242 USA
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Iowa law review, Vol.103(2), pp.507-569
- Publisher
- Univ Iowa, Coll Law
- ISSN
- 0021-0552
- Number of pages
- 63
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 01/01/2018
- Academic Unit
- Law Faculty; Philosophy
- Record Identifier
- 9984397947602771
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