A new book, published by the University of Chicago press and titled Corporate Bodies and Guilty Minds, by Wharton's William S. Laufer takes a fresh look at corporate behavior. Unlike most of the recent volumes on the topic, this book's focus is not on corporate social responsibility but rather corporate liability, and on how current structures fail to fashion liability rules that attribute blame to corporations.
While the book is written mostly for corporate executives and lawyers, it should be of interest to policy makers, too - with its in-depth study of legal reforms and close examination of what works and what doesn't. Laufer argues, with a witty and somewhat sarcastic tone, that there is no single constituency or interest group that strongly and consistently advocates the importance of corporate criminal liability. Unless and until such a unified voice emerges, we can expect to see continued gross corporate malfeasance.
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