Ms. Warren’s bill would make it easier for federal prosecutors to pursue charges against individuals by holding executives liable if they “negligently permit or fail to prevent a violation of law.” The government often uses statutes like mail and wire fraud to pursue criminal cases. Those laws, however, require proving the defendant’s intent to defraud, which is unlikely when a senior executive has little to do with the actual misconduct. The new provision would allow punishment if the executive were merely negligent in overseeing the enterprise, which means the person acted in an objectively unreasonable manner.

The legislation has already drawn criticism. An article in Slate argued that “the proposal to put corporate executives in jail for acting negligently is a very bad idea.” The authors’ main objection is that negligence is a far lower standard, so executives with minimal culpability could end up in prison.

Holding business executives criminally responsible for violations by the company is not a new concept. In United States v. Park, decided in 1975, the Supreme Court upheld the conviction of the chief executive of Acme Markets for violating a provision of the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, which makes it a crime to ship adulterated or misbranded food. The court found that the statute imposed strict liability on the executive, which “reflected the view both that knowledge or intent were not required to be proved in prosecutions under its criminal provisions, and that responsible corporate agents could be subjected to the liability thereby imposed.”

In both the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act, Congress provided that a person who violates the law can include “any responsible corporate officer.” In United States v. Iverson, the federal appeals court in San Francisco held that a corporate officer can be held liable “only when the officer in fact exercises control over the activity causing the discharge or has an express corporate duty to oversee the activity.”

Ms. Warren’s proposal is much broader than the food and environmental laws, however. It would apply to any company with more than $1 billion in annual revenue, and the punishment for an executive would be up to one year in prison for a first violation, and as much as three years for a second offense. Those are much more severe penalties than typically imposed for crimes resulting from a lack of adequate oversight.