This is a study of agency in the field of criminal liability, considering the respective roles of individuals and organisations and the allocation of criminal responsibility to these different kinds of actor. The issue of criminal responsibility, which is informed by both the sociological analysis of conduct and by ethical considerations of responsibility, provides an important and revealing focus for discussion. Criminal Enterprise analyses criminal responsibility through three main types of organisation: corporate actors in the field of business activity, states and governments, and delinquent or criminal organisations; each of which is of contemporary significance. This analysis focuses on three particular issues:

• the theory of individual and corporate (or organisational) responsibility
• the attribution of legal personality, as a particular form of identity, in theory and across jurisdictions and legal orders
• the internal practice and operation of complex organisations and corporate actors and how an understanding of this sociology of organisations should be used in the construction of legal agency in the field of criminal law.

Christopher Harding is Professor of Law at Aberystwyth University, Wales.