12.1 General principles

Commonwealth Criminal Code: Guide for practitioners

12.1 General principles

(1) This Code applies to bodies corporate in the same way as it applies to individuals. It so applies with such modifications as are set out in this Part, and with such other modifications as are made necessary by the fact that criminal liability is being imposed on bodies corporate rather than individuals.

(2) A body corporate may be found guilty of any offence, including one punishable by imprisonment.

Note: Section 4B of the Crimes Act 1914 enables a fine to be imposed for offences that only specify imprisonment as a penalty.

Overview

So far as offences of general application are concerned there is no impediment to conviction of a corporation.361 The acts of individuals who are employed by a corporation or who act as its agents or officers, are imputed to the corporation if the acts are within their apparent scope of employment or authority: s12.2 Physical elements. So, for example, there is no impediment to corporate conviction for the Code offence of impersonating a Commonwealth public official: s148.1. The conduct of the impersonator can be imputed to the corporation. The full range of Chapter 2 fault elements – intention, knowledge, recklessness and negligence can be imputed to a corporation. A corporation can conspire with its own agents; it can be an accomplice in offences committed by its agents and it can incite the commission of a crime by an agent. Whatever doubts there may have been at common law on these issues,362 they have been dissipated by the Code. The significance of derivative corporate liability for conspiracy or complicity may diminish in importance, however, as a consequence of the acceptance of a principle of organisational responsibility in Chapter 2. There is no need to resort to these extensions of criminal liability if the corporation can be charged as a principal offender.

  1. For a discussion of the uncertainties of the common law on the issue of offences which can be committed by a corporation, see B Fisse, Howard’s Criminal Law (1990), 609; P Gillies, Criminal Law (4ed 1997) 132-134.
  2. B Fisse, ibid 611-612.