Esbozo de un modelo de atribución de responsabilidad penal de las personas jurídicas

Abstract

The article provides an overview of the two models for attributing legal persons´criminal liability. One of the models attributes criminal liability for acts committed by a third party, where the legal person is made responsible for the criminal actions performed by the legal person´s organs or representatives. The second model, commonly referred to as responsibility for one´s own actions, which as its name suggests, attributes criminal liability directly to the legal person for his/her own actions. Then, it presents a brief outline of a proposal in this regard, on the basis of a model attributing criminal liability to legal persons for his/her own actions. It notes that the culpability of the legal person can only be established through an analogous concept of culpability. The attributable wrongdoing consists on a defective organization and the legal person, as a holder of a sphere of self organization, may be made directly responsible for the design flaws of their negative or positive organizational sphere. Finally, the paper analyzes the model assumed by the Chilean criminal law through the enactment of Law No 20.393 (D.O. 12.2.2009), which imposes criminal liability of legal persons only for the offenses of money laundering, terrorist financing and bribery.