Corporate Monitors: A Comparative Study

Abstract

Corporate monitorship is a pretrial diversion mechanism that enables prosecutors to rehabilitate corporate offenders. The article examines the legal and regulatory trajectory of corporate monitors in the US, UK and a few other economies. The article documents that corporate monitors not only permitted the corporate offenders to settle criminal charges with law compliance, but also helped to reduce the number of future violations. The article argues that the regulatory framework for corporate monitorship tends to rely upon principle-based judicial rules and the supplementing procedural guidelines. These guidelines often focus on the internal and external supervisory measures on the appointment of corporate monitors. Our research also presents an evidence-based, preliminary assessment of selected pilot schemes on corporate monitorship carried out at sub-national levels in China. It proceeds to make policy recommendations drawn from our comparative survey of corporate monitors. These include allocating greater prosecutorial discretion in regard to the use of corporate monitors in criminal proceedings, addressing the legislative inconsistencies of corporate monitorship with the existing PRC criminal justice system, and enhancing inter-agency coordination in respect of corporate monitors.