REGULATORY DIVERSITIES OF CORPORATE CRIMINAL LIABILITY: CHALLENGES AND WAY FORWARD

Abstract

This article underscores the importance of corporate persona in economic growth of any country striving to grow and industrialize, Tanzania inclusive. It is appreciated that despite the benefits it comes with, corporate entities represent potential drivers of socio-economic harm in different ways, crimes inclusive. Such crimes may take the form of financial crimes including tax evasion, money laundering and corruption; social crimes include environmental crimes, manslaughter and even murder in some jurisdictions. The article examines the status quo on regulation of corporate crimes amidst diverse polisocio-economic dynamics and later establishes specific focus in a Tanzanian context. The focus is sharpened by the country’s current achievement of the middle-income economy status fostered by the 5th regime government’s industrialization agenda. Certainly, industrialization cannot be achieved without the medium of corporate entities, thus calling for proper regulation of corporate activities against corporate crimes. Through a review of literature, this article appreciates the diversity and challenges in understanding and incorporation of corporate criminal liability into laws of different jurisdictions. To underscore the regulatory development in corporate criminal liability in Tanzanian a comparison is made with the legal development in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, South Africa and Australia. The comparison reveals lucid diversities in incorporation of corporate criminal liability followed by the challenges in regulating the same. The regulatory challenges pertain to the novelty of the phenomenon
which has not been properly taken up by the legal instruments in some jurisdictions. Others relate to complex nature of large corporate entities which renders failure to attach criminal liability to a corporate entity and; unclear rules of imputation of corporate criminal liability in relevant laws. To circumvent such drawbacks, this paper offers specific recommendations to amend certain legal instruments and provisions, and re-evaluate important legal and non-legal aspects necessary to facilitate effective regulation of corporate crimes.