Corporate manslaughter and the company director.

On the 6th April, 2008, long-awaited legislation comes into force which will change the face of corporate accountability for manslaughter. From sullen grumblings as far back as 1912 in the wake of the Titanic disaster, there has been growing concern that corporate manslaughter directly or indirectly threatens the security or well-being of society, and that it is not safe to leave it redressable only by compensation in civil proceedings. Following the failure of the prosecution of the shipowner in the case of the Herald of Free Enterprise, the call for a change in the law demanded action and, with the failure of the prosecution of Great Western Trains in the Southall crash, that call became irresistible. This paper examines the current law of manslaughter from the intimate position of the company director, and the rôle which they have played in the conception and birth of the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007.