The New Corporate Criminal Law and Transnational Legal Risk

Abstract

This chapter examines the transnational character of the ‘new corporate criminal law’ and identifies some of the consequences for any business that operates across borders, notably the expansion of transnational legal risk. A response to this expansion in legal risk has been the growth of adaptive and flexible “compliance” mechanisms within organizational governance. From the perspective of regulators, the new corporate criminal law also creates new sources of risk and the chapter will suggest that the increased importance of transnational regulatory networks between regulators is an adaptation to the new legal reality. The chapter concludes by suggesting that one important consequence of this expansion in new scope of legal risk is a transformation in the normative character of criminal law, as it applies to corporations.