By OMONEMU Edewor Tony, EDU Omerionwa Kingsley
Abstract
Corporate personality and imposition of corporate criminal liability for manslaughter have caused a great unease in the field of criminal law. Today, the doctrine of corporate manslaughter is recognised in a number of jurisdictions and holds that a company is to be penalised for negligent acts which result in the death of an
individual. This paper examines the legislative approach taken in Nigeria to deal with death arising from work activities and, in particularly, deaths that can be directly attributed to the negligent behaviour of corporate organisations. It also examines whether Corporate Manslaughter Law addresses the apparent or perceived
shortcomings in the current approach to prosecution for corporate manslaughter. This approach is compared with some of those available in other selected countries. The paper adopts a doctrinal approach and analyses the basis of corporate criminal liability, what can be done to further the business of corporate criminal responsibility
for manslaughter and a comparative analysis of the proposed corporate manslaughter law with similar laws in other countries. This work finds that the offence of corporate manslaughter is not provided for in Nigeria’s Criminal/Penal Codes which makes it imperative for a law to be enacted expeditiously to address this gap. It also finds that the corporate manslaughter is the product of a campaign to punish corporations following a number of high profile accidents at the end of the twentieth and start of the twenty-first centuries. The work therefore recommends that there is need to expeditiously review and pass into law the Corporate Manslaughter
Bill to penalise public and private organisations and arms of government whose negligent activities cause the death of individuals, if the menace of corporate killings is to be frontally confronted in Nigeria.