By the end of the 19th century, it was recognised that corporations are separate legal entities independent of their shareholders and managers, as confirmed in Salomon v Salomon [1897] AC 22. Despite this, the criminal law developed a criminal liability for corporations acting through their controlling officers.
In Tesco Supermarkets Ltd v Nattrass [1972] AC 153, it was held that the act of the supreme governing authority of a corporation (namely the board of directors or the managing director or controlling officer) constituted an act of the corporation itself. This is known as the identification doctrine. The problem with applying the identification doctrine in respect of corporate liability for manslaughter was that successful prosecutions were only possible where a company was small.
The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 abolished killing by gross negligence manslaughter in respect of corporations and abandoned the identification doctrine so that a corporation cannot be attributed with liability for that crime. In its place, the Act creates
