In English law a company may be responsible for wrongful acts or omissions in two ways. First, a corporation may be vicariously liable for the behaviour of its employees. The…
Abstract
In English law a company may be responsible for wrongful acts or omissions in two ways. First, a corporation may be vicariously liable for the behaviour of its employees. The company, as a legal construct, is liable if employers who are natural persons would have been so liable. The acts (or omissions) and state of mind of these high‐level employees are imputed to the company. The company is not vicariously liable (ie for what others did) but personally or directly (ie for what it did). The acts of the senior officers were done as the company, which being artificial cannot perform actions or mental calculations. The second mode of liability is sometimes known as the identification or alter ego doctrine. One distinction between the two modes of criminal responsibility is immediately apparent. Under the first the company is liable for the conduct of its employees, however low in the corporate hierarchy. With regard to the second there is a distinction drawn between those who are the directing mind and will of the company and other individuals (cf. Tesco Supermarkets Ltd v Nattrass and Tesco Stores Ltd v Brent LBC. The distinction is often stated anthropomorphically as one between ‘hands’ and ‘brain’ and there is a growing jurisprudence concerned with which jobs in which companies fall within these categories.
If a company becomes known as a corrupt and dishonest one with the result that employees dismissed by the company's liquidators find it more difficult than they would otherwise…
Abstract
If a company becomes known as a corrupt and dishonest one with the result that employees dismissed by the company's liquidators find it more difficult than they would otherwise have done to obtain fresh employment, may they claim compensation for the loss of reputation consequent on being associated with a corrupt and dishonest company which has led to their problems in the labour market? The modern term for such compensation is ‘stigma damages’. The House of Lords in Malik v BCCI SA [1997] 3 All ER 1 (sub nom. Mahmud v BCCI SA [1997] 3 WLR 95) was called upon to answer this question.
This article advances the proposition that there is occurring a sea‐change in the sanctions imposed by courts when companies breach the criminal law. It focuses on the publication…
Abstract
This article advances the proposition that there is occurring a sea‐change in the sanctions imposed by courts when companies breach the criminal law. It focuses on the publication of the Law Commission's Report No. 237, ‘Legislating the Criminal Code: Involuntary Manslaughter’, of March 1996, questions the effectiveness of the proposed court order compelling remedial action, and suggests that other sanctions should be considered. It should be noted that the Commission's recommendations are not necessarily restricted to the law of manslaughter, but are potentially applicable to all violations of criminal law including financial offences.
Gone are the days when a bank could concentrate on providing a reliable service to its customer, and maintain that as part of that service it could guard the confidentiality of…
Abstract
Gone are the days when a bank could concentrate on providing a reliable service to its customer, and maintain that as part of that service it could guard the confidentiality of all information learnt in the course of the customer's banking. Formerly, a customer could be relatively confident that information about his or her business affairs would not be disclosed save in fairly limited circumstances, and the bank would not trouble itself as to how these affairs were conducted. Current legislation and regulation requires a bank to be aware of the commercial background to its clients' dealings and, in certain circumstances, to take steps to report criminal conduct or to account to third parties.
Enforcement of regulatory controls has traditionally been left to the criminal law. In the last 15 years there has been an increasing interest in using civil remedies for this…
Abstract
Enforcement of regulatory controls has traditionally been left to the criminal law. In the last 15 years there has been an increasing interest in using civil remedies for this purpose. Most of the attention has been on financial services, but there have been recent developments in the UK planning system, which provide interesting parallels.
Clive Bingley, John Buchanan and Elaine Kempson
‘I'M MINERVA. ASK ME. Out goes the image of the bespectacled, disapproving librarian, the woman who makes you feel frivolous for taking out nothing more weighty than philosophy…
Abstract
‘I'M MINERVA. ASK ME. Out goes the image of the bespectacled, disapproving librarian, the woman who makes you feel frivolous for taking out nothing more weighty than philosophy. In comes the newstyle library hostess, smart, alluring, shaped for confidences.
Information is power — so it has been said — and nowhere has this statement been realised more significantly than in the banking industry. IT and banking in the 1990s and going…
Abstract
Information is power — so it has been said — and nowhere has this statement been realised more significantly than in the banking industry. IT and banking in the 1990s and going forward to the next millennium are tightly bonded. It is now more difficult to determine whether business drives technology or the other way round. Given this scenario, one of the most important facets of managing IT in a bank is that of information security.