Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide (2nd edition)

Citation

Jefferson, M. (2008), "Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide (2nd edition)", International Journal of Law and Management, Vol. 50 No. 5, pp. 265-266. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijlma.2008.50.5.265.3

This book bears the subtitle A Manager's Guide to Legal Compliance and that is what to some degree it is. Though it has tables of cases and of statutes, it is not a lawyers' handbook (there is, for example, a mention of but no exegesis of the identification doctrine: Tesco vs Nattrass makes a brief appearance in a quote from Celia Wells' book, Corporations and Criminal Responsibility, OUP, 1st edition, 1993, – page references are unfortunately not provided – the author seemingly not realising there is a 2nd edition), and it is not restricted to the newly in force Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 but extends to health and safety law in general. The book therefore is a misnomer in this respect as well as others: it covers not just corporate manslaughter but also individual involuntary manslaughter of the Adomako (misspelt as Adamako in the table of cases) variety, that is, gross negligence, and there are e.g. chapters on “The Legal Systems, Processes and Enforcement”, “Management of Road Risk” and “Accident and Incident Investigation”. In the view of the reviewer, the best parts are where the author builds up the facts of disasters in the early chapters, and the passages on “The Gillian Beckingham case”, the Barrow Borough Council and legionnaires' disease case, are handled well. See especially Chapter 4.25. Also helpful is the table on p. 317 relating to the management of health and safety in respect of the sinking of “the Herald of Free Enterprise” off Zeebrugge.

It comes across as something of a mishmash. There is no explanation of why the chapter on legal systems sits between “Enforcement and Fines” and “Penalty Options for Health and Safety Offences” or indeed why fines are dealt with in all three chapters. Similarly, there is no explanation why “Directors' Responsibilities for Health and Safety” includes discussion of cases in which directors were not involved and Crime Scene Investigators. A good shake‐up and a good editor are needed. A couple of illustrations will suffice. Chapter 1, headed “Deaths at Work – A Case for Reform”, should become as it already is to an extent an overview, introducing the main themes, which are then picked up as the book progresses; the book title should be followed though – the Morecambe Bay cockle pickers as an illustration were not employed by a corporation; and the chapter which actually deals with the 2007 statute can be made deeper in analysis than it currently is (it consists of the statute's sections with a short commentary but no discussion of e.g. how gross is a gross breach of a duty of care owed by the accused to the deceased). There are also some failures to update e.g. the Act's title constitutes in itself an error of terminology because it applies to “organisations” as defined in s. 1(2) but in places the book reads that the Act applies only to companies. Even if we grant that the Act applies beyond companies, no author should write that natural people are guilty of corporate manslaughter. Indeed, the Act is clear that not just can individuals, including directors, not be charged with corporate manslaughter but they cannot even be charged with being a secondary party to the new offence: see s. 18.

The reviewer hopes that the next edition will reflect his suggestions. It would also be good for someone to correct spellings e.g. it is “Gary”, not “Garry”, Slapper and it is “Tombs”, not “Toms”.