Defence against corporate liability

COME June 2020, the amendment to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Act 2009, the Corporate Liability Provision known as S17A, will come into effect. Modelled on Section 7 of the UK Bribery Act 2010 (UKBA), the Corporate Liability Provision states that if corruption occurs in a commercial organisation (defined as a company or partnership that is formed under Malaysian law or a company or partnership that carries on business or part of a business in Malaysia), not only will the person directly responsible be hauled up but the company directors, management and supervisors of the organisation he is in will also be technically liable in the commission of the offence. In the case of a partnership, the partners would be held liable even if the offence was committed by their dispatch boy or clerk.

But what is corporate liability?