ABSTRACT
The history of corporate liability has been described as ‘haphazard and incoherent’ (Wells, 1993b, p 558). In principle it has been possible to prosecute a company for corporate criminal liability since 1827, with three different theories of criminal liability – vicarious liability, the doctrine of identification, and a systems approach (Wells, 1995a, b). The tradition has been to make a corporation vicariously liable (secondarily liable) for the acts of its servants in statutory duties, based on strict liability up until 1944.
