ALRC Proposes Significant Reforms For Australia's Corporate Criminal Liability Regime

In Short

The Situation: The Australian Law Reform Commission ("ALRC") has released its much anticipated Discussion Paper on Australia's corporate criminal responsibility regime, which provides the ALRC's preliminary views in relation to some key areas of proposed reform.

The Result: The ALRC concludes there is an over proliferation of criminal offences under existing Commonwealth legislation and a lack of principled distinction between existing criminal and civil regulation of corporations (with both frequently available for the same or similar conduct). A suite of reforms has been proposed to recalibrate the existing regime and establish a coherent model of criminal and civil contraventions. The ALRC is also proposing a new approach to attributing criminal liability to corporations using the conduct and state of mind of the company's "associates" and the introduction of a regime to hold senior executives liable for failing to take reasonable measures to prevent