Kyle Noonan · February 2012
80 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 602 (2012)
Though American corporations are creations of state law, the federal government predominantly regulates their behavior. This mismatch helps explain both the inadequate deterrence that the current system of criminal sanctions imposes on corporations as well as the unmet social need for retribution. This Note argues that Congress should authorize a federal corporate charter revocation penalty for corporations that are repeatedly convicted of certain crimes. Congress, exercising its power to preempt states from fields in which the states and Congress share authority, could authorize federal courts to impose such a penalty. Charter revocation would improve both general and specific deterrence against corporate crime and better meet the public’s need for retribution. Congress should apply the charter revocation penalties to the type of morally laden, socially damaging crimes that meet the U.S. Sentencing Commission’s factors for increasing the severity of a sentence. The charter revocation penalty should be structured to protect innocent parties, such as employees, while preventing the morally culpable, such as officers and directors, from reconstituting the condemned corporation.
