THE CONDITIONS OF CRIMINAL LIABILITY OF THE LEGAL PERSON

Abstract

In this article I tried to summarize essential aspects regarding the criminal liability of the legal person. People can be involved in criminal legal relations, both individually and organized according to the law in the form of legal entities. One of the subjects of criminal liability according to the Criminal Code in force is the legal person. Since it is an active subject of the crime different from the natural person, naturally the conditions for the existence of his criminal liability are also different. Also, the legal person attracts a distinct form of liability, with specific features, which is subject to its own rules, separate from those applicable to the natural person. However, like the natural person, the legal person is subject to compliance with the fundamental principles of criminal law. The legal person participates as a distinct legal subject in the most varied legal relationships: civil, commercial, financial, administrative, banking and criminal. The introduction into Romanian criminal law of the criminal liability of the legal person took place through Law no. 278/2006, amending the Criminal Code from 1968. Currently, the Criminal Code in force dedicates Title VI to this legal institution entitled "Criminal liability of the legal entity". I chose this theme considering the challenges it entails and the issues it raises. I tried to answer some of them, such as the premises of the criminal liability of the legal person, showing how the criminal sanction was reached from the historical perspective of the legal person, I then explained the necessity that determines the regulation of such liability in criminal law, I explained the notion of a legal person, I have shown the conditions under which the criminal liability of the legal person is engaged and the way in which legal persons are sanctioned from a criminal point of view. I also presented a case in which the criminal prosecution of this subject of criminal law is practically illustrated.