Criminal law traditionally focuses on personal guilt. Criminal law is, it
seems, intricately linked to notions of culpability, blame, and the infliction
of loss on an offender. Its offenses commonly require proof of an accused
person’s mental state.1 And its fundamental principles hold that criminal
sanctions should address the individual responsibility of the wrongdoer
without harming innocent third parties.2 With these considerations in
mind, lawmakers around the world traditionally adhered to the principle
societas delinquere non potest.3 Corporations could, like human beings,
hold rights and duties under private law but they could not be regarded as
possessing the moral faculties that would enable them to be addressees of
the criminal law.4