RE-EXAMINING THE LAWFUL INSUFFICIENCIES FOR CORPORATE PUNISHMENT: A CASE FOR THE PUNISHMENT OF COMPANIES IN NIGERIA FOR CORPORATE MANSLAUGHTER AND CORPORATE HOMICIDE

The penalization of companies for corporate manslaughter and corporate homicide has been the subject of extensive debate. This is largely due to questions of the legal inadequacies of Nigerias legal system to prosecute organisations for corporate manslaughter. This article argues that there are legal defects in Nigerias legal system at the level of enforcement of corporate manslaughter and corporate homicide and law through government institutions, but in other countries like the United Kingdom at the level of administrative rules and enforcement, there are no legal defects with regards to punishment of companies for corporate manslaughter and corporate homicide. This paper assesses the legal defects in the current systems inability to punish companies for corporate manslaughter and corporate homicide in Nigeria when compared with other countries like New Zealand, Malaysia, The Netherlands, Australia and The UK. This finding confirms that with regards to punishing companies in Nigeria for corporate manslaughter and corporate homicide, there are legal defects from Nigerias current system. The idea is to establish a fundamental nexus between lack of legal attitude for the prosecution of companies in Nigeria for corporate manslaughter and legal defects in Nigerias legal system at the level of punishing companies whose activities cause death. The research achieves the outcome by evaluating the mechanism in place for punishment of companies in various countries when its activities causes death.