Corporations and the Justice System

Compelling corporations to obey laws and fulfill their legal responsibilities has proven exceedingly difficult.  Worse still, criminal justice for large corporations generally consists of settlements obtained outside of the courts in a non-transparent process in which shareholders often pay fines, corporations promise to comply better, few or no individuals are held to account, and little else happens. This session will explore the failings of the justice system in the corporate context using real world examples pulled from the headlines, including PG&E, Purdue Pharma, and Boeing. This session will also consider, among other things, whether current laws impose sufficient accountability for those with power, whether current laws are able to prevent law evasion by corporations but fail to do so due to ineffective enforcement, and whether we need to write expanded “responsible officer” statutes.