Essay On Vicarious Liability

Vicarious liability can be defined as holding an accused criminally liable for the unlawful conduct committed by another. It is associated with special relationships, for example the employer-employee relationship whereby the employer is held liable for a delict committed by their employee acting within the scope of his or her employment. It is a manifestation of strict liability from the perspective of the employer as he or she can be held liable for a crime in regards to which he or she does not have fault if their employee has fault in regards the prohibited act committed within the scope of their employment. The common law position of criminal law does not recognize the general principle of vicarious liability as a person cannot be held liable for a crime committed by another unless they are a participant or were involved in the authorization or procurrence of said crime. There are however statutes that have been upheld to impose vicarious liability according …show more content…
Vicarious liability can be imposed by legislators either expressly or by implication and is identified though inference; taking into account the language and wording, manifest purpose and intention of the legislator in the enactment. In order to evaluate whether an act makes provision for vicarious liability, it is important to take into account whether the manifest purpose of the enactment would be defeated without the imposition of vicarious liability; whether the language and express wording of the enactment indicates the offence is one of vicarious or strict liability excluding fault as an element to the offence; if the prohibition is only imposed on a particular class of people and the severity of the