Abstract:

It has been an old argument that Business Corporation is a legal entity, separate entity and separate from the owner. It has blanket to protect itself from being sued. Corporate veil has been used as shield to protect itself from prosecution. With such protection, how can it be morally responsible for its act? Moral responsibility is only applied to human, not to any other things. However, this paper will argue otherwise. Based on paper reviews, it is found that one of the requirements in determining moral responsibility is the presence or the absence of knowledge and free will in a certain act. Such requirement clearly strengthen the idea that corporation, though it is a separate entity from the owner may not completely out of hand, wash its hands and can just do what it wants but it has to be also guided by moral standards and take moral responsibility to its immoral actions. The reason is that a corporation as an entity is still composed of rational beings that have knowledge and free will in pursuing their objectives. Therefore, when things go wrong in the corporation, it is not only individual employees who committed the crime are taking the moral blame but also the corporation as a whole including the owner.

Key words: Moral responsibility, moral standards, element of moral standards, individualism methodology, the nature of corporation, knowledge and freewill.

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