Mandatory self-reporting of criminal conduct by a company: corporate rights and engaging the privilege against self-incrimination

Fisher, Jonathan Simon (2021) Mandatory self-reporting of criminal conduct by a company: corporate rights and engaging the privilege against self-incrimination. PhD thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science.

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Abstract

This thesis considers whether the privilege against self-incrimination is engaged when a company is required to make a suspicious activity report which discloses criminal conduct committed by an officer or employee pursuant to section 330(1) of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002. If the assertion of the privilege is not recognised, a company’s failure to disclose suspicious information will constitute a criminal offence punishable by unlimited fine. Whilst the scope of an individual’s obligation to self-report criminal conduct is relatively narrow, there is much wider exposure for a company which acts only through the conduct of its officers and employees. The research is doctrinal and addresses important theoretical issues. Locating mandatory reporting within a contemporary narrative which embraces criminal liability for omissions, the thesis develops a theoretical foundation for the law’s recognition of a company’s claim to assert the privilege against self-incrimination in response to the self-reporting aspect of the mandatory requirement. As a fundamental civil liberty, the underlying rationales of the privilege are enlivened by the coercive force which the mandatory reporting requirement presents. The privilege serves to maintain evidential reliability, and protect dignity, autonomy, and privacy. To develop the claim that a company is entitled to assert the privilege against self-incrimination, the basis on which a company may assert rights is comprehensively explored. Traditional approaches struggle to provide an adequate basis for the recognition of corporate rights. The research draws on consequentialist arguments which sustain the law’s acknowledgment of corporate rights and, in particular, a company’s right to assert the privilege against self-incrimination where the company is exposed to the risk of criminal investigation and prosecution. This line of contention engages with the work of modernist theorists who conceptualise a company as a moral agent.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Additional Information:	© 2021 Jonathan Simon Fisher
Library of Congress subject classification:	H Social Sciences > HV Social pathology. Social and public welfare. Criminology K Law > K Law (General)
Sets:	Departments > Law
Supervisor:	Horder, Jeremy and Kershaw, David
URI:	http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/4330

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