Modelling Organisational Vicarious Liability
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Publisher
DOI
10.1017/lst.2019.10
Journal
Legal Studies
ISSN
0261-3875
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
This article identifies two paradigms of vicarious liability. One is an established paradigm of ‘liberal agency’ found in cases where owner-managers ‘act through’ workers, with whom they have personal relations, in undertaking work tasks. The second paradigm is found in cases concerning bureaucratic organisations, which are characterised by chains of command and variegated decision-making procedures. Courts have grounded organisational responsibility in features such as structure, hierarchy, and control, which this article uses to construct a model of the ‘deterrable organisation’. The deterrable organisation has important capacities to effect change in behaviour that courts rely upon in order to prevent worker wrongdoing. The article tests the viability of the model against the empirical literature and argues that courts could improve outcomes by a more targeted use of powers to award remedies.
Authors
Witting, CCollections
- Department of Law [873]