Criminal Liability Of Legal Entities Research Articles

Issues of Criminal Liability of Legal Entities in the Works of Scientists of the Institute of Legislation and Comparative Law under the Government of the Russian Federation

The Institute of Legislation and Comparative Law under the Government of the Russian Federation (ILCL) is the only scientific legal institution in Russia that has been conducting crosssectoral research on issues of criminal liability of legal entities for many years. In the context of the scientific and legal assessment of corporate criminal liability, the author examines the works of scientists of the Institute published in the Soviet and post-Soviet periods of the development of domestic jurisprudence. The article describes the research of international documents containing recommendations on the introduction of criminal liability of legal entities, as well as provides models of this kind of liability in the legislation of some foreign countries. The features of the responsibility of legal entities for certain types of crimes, such as corruption, economic and entrepreneurial orientation, are revealed. The purpose of the study is to analyze the formation and development of scientific ideas about the criminal liability of legal entities in their relationship with changing socio-economic relations and political processes in society, to identify on this basis trends in the development of corporate criminal liability and to predict possible options for the implementation of this institution in Russian criminal legislation. The methodological basis of the research is the dialectical method of cognition, general scientific methods of analysis, synthesis and abstraction, and special legal methods. The results obtained and the main conclusions. In the works of scientists of the Institute, the nature and types of criminal liability of legal entities, on the one hand, are considered from the point of view of historical retrospect, on the other hand, they are revealed as a direction of development of criminal legislation, which has experimental models of approbation in the jurisdictions of many foreign countries. The essence of the institution of criminal liability of legal entities is to apply sanctions to these entities in criminal procedure for committing acts provided for by national criminal codes or other laws. At the same time, legal entities can be recognized as subjects of a crime, and only as subjects of criminal liability. In turn, sanctions for them can be both criminal penalties and other measures of a criminal nature. The legislative consolidation of such responsibility in Russian law will not require fundamental changes in it. The doctrinal foundation for substantiating the relevant legislative decisions is the works of scientists from the ILCL.

Administrative and economic sanctions under French commercial law

The publication examines the provisions on administrative and economic sanctions of the French Commercial Code and other acts of French legislation. It was concluded that the French experience of regulation of commercial relations is based on complex solutions involving a combination of private-law and public-law regulation.
 It is substantiated that during the last century the commercial legislation of France was saturated with public legal provisions. The new French Commercial Code of 2000 incorporated a significant number of provisions that are public law, including administrative and criminal sanctions.
 The presence of provisions in the French Commercial legislation, which by nature of administrative influence on business entities can be recognized as administrative and economic sanctions, is established in many spheres of relations. These sanctions include typical penalties imposed on economic entities for antitrust violations, violations of reporting and other rules of conducting commercial activities, as well as other numerous sanctions of an organizational nature. It is substantiated that the disciplinary responsibility of certain professions in commerce defined in the FCC can be qualified as a type of administrative and economic sanctions relevant to the Ukrainian legal sense.
 Taking into account the experience of French commercial law, it was concluded that the ideas of reducing the discretion of state bodies when applying sanctions to business to eliminate the risks of corruption and abuse are not confirmed in modern European legislation. It is obvious that this follows from the quite reasonable assumption that the fight against corruption should affect the specific offender, and not destroy the effectiveness of the state's response to offenses, including in the business sphere.
 Several trends in the legislative regulation of administrative and economic sanctions in France have been identified, including attempts to solve the problems of the ratio of administrative sanctions and criminal penalties on legal entities, the expansion of judges' approaches to the assessment of administrative sanctions imposed on merchants from the point of view of compliance with procedural provisions and respect for human rights.
 It was concluded that the introduction of criminal liability of legal entities into national law cannot take place without an analysis of the problems caused by relevant institutions in foreign countries, in particular in France.

Back to the Problem of Criminal Liability of Legal Entities: Two Views on the Problem (Using the Example of Environmental Crimes)

The authors examine the positions of supporters and opponents of introducing criminal liability for legal persons in the Russian Federation. They have summarized and evaluated the existing approaches to the problem, and present two views on the prospect of introducing the institute of criminal liability for legal persons using the example of environmental crimes. This choice is not accidental and is explained by a number of reasons. Firstly, the condition of the environment continues to deteriorate in spite of all undertaken efforts, which calls for new approaches to its protection, including through criminal law means. Secondly, it is necessary to understand that the greatest threat to the environment is posed by large companies working in the sphere of extracting, processing and using various natural resources — oil, gas, metals, chemical companies, agricultural holdings, energy and transportation companies, which all operate with the purpose is maximizing profits. Practice shows that they are responsible for the largest environmental disasters of the latest decades. Compared to them, the contribution of private persons to environmental pollution is negligibly small. Thirdly, the overwhelming majority of researchers specializing in the problems of criminal liability for environmental crimes support the establishment of criminal liability specifically for the violations of nature protection legislation. In spite of the differences in the opinions of authors regarding the necessity of establishing criminal liability for legal persons, they leave space for further discussions on the topic.

Responsibility for Wrongdoing and Touching It: the Temporal Evolution of the Norms of Domestic Criminal Law

In different periods of the development of the Russian state, the interest of legislators, theorists and practitioners in improving the measures of criminal legal influence on persons involved in crime in general and acts of injustice in particular was not the same. To a large extent, the criminalization of such acts was conditioned by the requirements of vital necessity in combating crimes that affect the priority interests of the State, including the legitimacy of State power, economic security and property rights.
 The purpose of the study is to determine the historical roots of the formation and evolution of the development of those forms of wrongdoing and touching them that have become the foundation of modern institutions of criminal law: obstruction of justice, harboring of crimes, failure to report a crime, connivance to crimes, criminal liability of legal entities and exemption from liability.
 The key means and ways to achieve the goal were temporal and comparative legal methods of studying the institutions of criminal responsibility for wrongdoing and touching it in legal sources of the XVXX centuries. Such an approach to the study made it possible in an evolutionary context to present the most clearly the conclusions of the transformation of the architectonics of various institutions of domestic criminal law familiar to our time.
 Their diachronic development follows from the temporal analysis of acts related to acts of injustice (harboring of crimes, failure to report a crime, connivance to crimes). Firstly, their legal nature has not always been identified with ways to counteract the administration of justice (in its broad sense, not only as the activity of the court, but also officials, individuals and even collective entities (legal entities) obliged to comply with the law, to promote the administration of justice and to execute judicial acts). Secondly, in certain historical periods, acts of wrongdoing and acts of persons touched were considered as encroachments on other public relations protected by law (for example, legitimate institutions of state power and economic security of the state).

Comparative Study of the Provisions on Criminal Liability of Legal Entities in the Criminal Laws of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam

This article presents a comparative study on a number of issues concerning corporate criminal liability in the criminal laws of Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam such as legal persons that are the subject of offences and the subject of criminal liability; the scope of corporate criminal offences; elements of corporate criminal law; models of corporate criminal liability; punishments. On the basis of comparative research, the article draws some conclusions and proposes several recommendations to improve the provisions on corporate criminal liability in the current Vietnamese criminal law.
 
 
 

Criminal Prosecution Against the Crime of Legal Entities in Vietnam

In this article we focus on the study of the current state of criminal law and criminal procedure in Vietnam on criminal prosecution of legal entities in order to find out the problems, thus proposing to ensure the effective implementation of criminal prosecution of legal entities in Vietnam. In order to solve these problems, we will compare the laws of Vietnam with the legal regulations of some countries in the world on the criminal liability of legal entities and analyze the current situation of Vietnamese law to indicate the incompatibility with the laws of other countries and their inadequacies, problems, and feasibility. Accordingly, we will make recommendations to amend and supplement some provisions of Vietnamese law on criminal prosecution of legal entities and recommend measures to ensure the implementation of the rules. This is in fact a fast, accurate, and relevant context of globalization today in Vietnam.

Corporate Criminal Liability: An Overview of the Croatian Model after 20 Years of Practice

The Croatian legislators introduced the concept of criminal liability for legal entities already in 2003 with the adoption of the Law on Criminal Liability of Legal Entities. Influenced by the writing of esteemed domestic scholars, and inspired by French law, the legislators opted for a system linking the liability of corporations to the liability of the responsible person. There were very few cases in practice during the first years of its application, and the situation changed after the first prominent indictment of this type against the ruling political party for economic crimes. Since then, the legislation has been amended several times and a significant body of jurisprudence has developed. In the first part of this paper, I will describe the chronology of the development and formation of the Croatian legislative model of corporate criminal liability. The second part will analyze 31 available final court judgments, which will be the basis for the conclusion about the issues in the practical application of the legislative model and, more generally, the phenomenon of criminal offenses committed by legal entities in Croatia. Based on this analysis, I will indicate the potential deficiencies of such a concept. In the context of future development, special attention will be given to the problem of economic crimes committed by AI corporate systems.

Criminal Compliance Program as a Tool for Criminal Liability Exculpation of Legal Persons in the Czech Republic

Criminal liability of legal entities has gained an inalienable place in the system of legal liability in most European jurisdictions, including the Czech Republic. Departing from the premise that it is a suitable supplement to the liability of a legal entity in the event of serious unlawful acts of natural persons from which the legal entity benefits, this article aims to characterize the position and role of this form of liability in the Czech legal system. Essentially, however, it seeks to determine under which circumstances it is possible for legal entities to be relieved of liability using an exculpatory clause. Based on a case study of the Czech Republic, it illustrates the added value of criminal compliance programs, which, if properly set up and implemented in practice and complemented by prevention, detection and response measures, play a decisive role in establishing such criminal exculpation. The article further finds that rules pertaining to ethical codes of conduct are in fact ‘elevated’ to the level of legal rules through compliance programs. Compliance, one of the components of Corporate Social Responsibility, thus becomes an expression of a legal obligation, i.e., the obligation to properly manage and control the corporation, which has important legal implications.

Criminal Liability of Legal Entities in the Kyrgyz Republic Under the Criminal Code of the Kyrgyz Republic Dated February 2, 2017, no. 19: The Need for Identification or Another Planned Sabotage?

The article is devoted to the analysis of the institution of measures of criminal law in relation to legal entities that existed in the Criminal Code of the Kyrgyz Republic dated February 2, 2017, no. 19 due to the criminal law reform of 2012-2020. allegedly relying on the concepts and concepts developed by the law of both the European Union and international law, but not once applied in any criminal case in the Kyrgyz Republic for the entire period of validity of this Criminal Code (from January 1, 2019 to the middle November 2021), when, as a result of the adoption of the new Criminal Code of the Kyrgyz Republic (enacted by the Law of the Kyrgyz Republic of October 28, 2021 No. 126), this institution was liquidated. Based on the analysis of the history of the development of the institution of criminal liability of legal entities under the laws of other countries, international conventions, the authors come to the conclusion that it is absolutely inapplicable, groundless, illegal to include legal entities as subjects of quasi-criminal liability and punishment in the Criminal Code of the Kyrgyz Republic. The authors propose measures to combat such initiatives and “reforms” of criminal law in order to avoid collapse, paralysis of the law enforcement system, similar to the one that arose in 2020 inthe Kyrgyz Republic due to the new Criminal, Criminal Procedure and other codes.

Рецензия на монографию А.В. Федорова «Уголовная ответственность юридических лиц в постсоциалистических государствах Азиатско-Тихоокеанского региона»

The review is devoted to A.V. Fedorov’s monograph on the criminal liability of legal entities in the post-socialist states of the Asia-Pacific region, China, Vietnam, and Mongolia. The review examines the author’s position on the content of criminal liability of legal entities in these states. The reviewer’s opinion is presented on certain aspects of the problem.

Participația penală și persoanele juridice. Istoric și perspective de viitor

The purpose of the article is to study the evolution of the criminal participation in Romania, with increased attention paid to the way in which criminal liability of legal entities was accepted and developed over time, to try to formulate predictions about the future of legal persons in the criminal law and to analyse the possibility of accepting, according to the current rules, the artificial intelligence systems as subjects of criminal law. The historical perspective is doubled by comparative law case studies which are based on judgments from the United Kingdom and France that are representative for the currents of opinion regarding need to prosecute and convict legal persons together with the individuals involved in the criminal activity.

The model of criminal liability of legal entities for encroachments in the field of economic activity

The model of criminal liability of legal entities for encroachments in the field of economic activity

УГОЛОВНО-ПРОЦЕССУАЛЬНОЕ ПОЛОЖЕНИЕ ЮРИДИЧЕСКОГО ЛИЦА В РЕСПУБЛИКЕ АРМЕНИЯ

The article draws attention to the increased relevance of the study of the issues of criminal liability of legal entities, which has become a novelty of the Armenian criminal and criminal procedure legislation. The relevance of the topic of this article is due to the fact that with the adoption of the new Criminal Procedure Code of the Republic of Armenia, adopted by the National Assembly on June 30, 2021, and entered into legal force on July 1, 2022, a legal entity is considered as a full-fledged subject of criminal procedure relations by the defense. Present article contains a theoretical analysis of some issues related to the criminal procedural status of a legal entity. The article discusses the place of a legal entity in criminal procedural legal relations, its criminal procedural status, procedural responsibility. Such a category as the procedural legal personality of a legal entity as a participant in criminal proceedings is analyzed, their possible significance for the implementation of the procedural status is explored.

Corporate Criminal Liability Along the Supply Chain? – An Austrian Perspective

The proposal for a Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive [CSDDD] has led to numerous questions in various legal areas. However, little has been examined so far regarding whether a breach of the obligations programme that member states must implement into their legal systems based on this directive can also have criminal consequences for corporations that are part of the supply chain. The present paper attempts to provide an initial assessment of these questions based on the Austrian system of criminal liability of legal entities.

Features of Criminal Liability of Legal Entities under the Legislation of Argentina

Features of Criminal Liability of Legal Entities under the Legislation of Argentina

К вопросу об уголовной ответственности юридических лиц, признанных экстремистскими организациями

В статье рассматривается возможность введения в Российской Федерации уголовной ответственности для юридических лиц, совершающих деяния экстремистской направленности и признанных в соответствии с законодательством экстремистскими организациями. Проанализированы результаты научных исследований по данному вопросу. Охарактеризованы особенности уголовной ответственности юридических лиц в европейских государствах: Австрии, Бельгии, Испании, Франции, Чехии, Албании, Люксембурге, Лихтенштейне, Швейцарии, Боснии и Герцеговине. Раскрыты основные положения законопроекта, дополняющие Уголовный кодекс РФ нормами, которые предусматривают ответственность юридических лиц, в частности, за экстремистскую деятельность. Сформулированы предложения по уголовному наказанию юридических лиц, совершающих преступления экстремистской направленности. The article deals with the possibility of introducing criminal liability in the Russian Federation for legal entities committing acts of an extremist nature and recognized as extremist organizations in accordance with the legislation. The results of scientific research on this issue are analyzed. The features of criminal liability of legal entities in European states are characterized: Austria, Belgium, Spain, France, Czech Republic, Albania, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The main provisions of the bill supplementing the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation with norms providing for the responsibility of legal entities, in particular, for extremist activities, are disclosed. The author formulates proposals for the criminal punishment of legal entities committing crimes of extremist orientation.

Issues of application of administrative supervision of legal entities

The article examines certain issues of criminal liability of legal entities and unresolved issues of countering crimes committed both before the facts of illegal activity are revealed and after the subject to criminal responsibility declared guilty. The effectiveness of countering environmental and economic crime depends on solving the problem of preventing repeated crimes. The object of the study of this article are the norms of administrative and criminal legislation that establish the concept and signs of multiple crimes, as well as administrative supervision of persons convicted of committing a crime and responsibility for evading administrative supervision. The work examines the norms of criminal and administrative law. The analysis of situations requiring resolution at the legislative level is carried out. The ways of improving the current criminal and administrative legislation are proposed. To prepare the article, both general scientific research methods, including analysis, systematization and extrapolation, and special methods of cognition were used. The novelty of the research lies in the construction of concrete proposals for the development of the institution of criminal liability of legal entities and the prevention of their recidivism. The paper emphasizes the need for the execution of court decisions and suggests ways to achieve it. The measures aimed at improving the corporate policy of a legal entity are described. The paper substantiates the need to apply administrative supervision measures to legal entities as a way to protect violated rights.

Criminal Liability of Legal Entities for Environmental Crimes: Problems of Law Enforcement Practice

The aim of the article was to conduct a comparative legal analysis of the features and problems of criminal prosecution of legal entities for environmental crimes. The research objectives were fulfilled through modern methods of cognition. The leading practical method was the method of observation. The study allowed to form a conceptual understanding of theoretical ideas about environmental crimes of legal entities in Ukraine. Currently, Ukraine is trying to focus in its legislative innovations on the implementation of progressive approaches to the introduction of a comprehensive institution of criminal law measures regarding the liability of these entities. Relevant legal mechanisms and comments identified in the practice of the European Union and substantiated by scholars, can be implemented in the legislation of Ukraine. Amendments to the rules governing the procedure for effective prevention of environmental crimes by legal entities are proposed. It seems reasonable to introduce an active monitoring analysis of anthropogenic activities of companies, and the creation of special units to identify relevant violations. The mechanisms for implementing the set of preventive and monitoring measures outlined in the article, set the background for further scientific research.

Аналіз законодавчого регулювання юридичної відповідальності за порушення антикорупційного законодавства в зарубіжних країнах

The article analyzes the types of legal liability for violation of anti-corruption legislation in foreign countries. In particular, the article reveales the peculiarities of bringing to civil, administrative and criminal liability. The consolidation of different types of responsibility in the regulations of foreign countries is studied with its common and distinctive features. It is also established that as a type of legal liability, civil liability is not integrated into civil law, unlike administrative and criminal law. Most often, civil law mechanisms are not provided in civil, but in anti-corruption legislation and other legislations. In foreign countries much more widely is applied administrative liability for the corruption actions against both individuals and legal entities, the rules of which can also be found in anti-corruption legislation, laws on interest conflicts, codes of administrative violations. As for criminal liability for violating the corruption legislation, it exists in all countries, where the list of prohibited acts of corruption is periodically updated depending on the emergence of new corruption threats and risks. The emphasis is placed on the fact that foreign countries use various mechanisms to bring legal entities to justice, but most often such rules are contained in criminal codes. Another mechanism for introducing the institution of criminal liability of legal entities is the adoption of special laws on criminal liability for legal entities, the common features of which are: the definition of the main features of criminal liability of legal entities; transfer of body of crime for which legal entities are responsible; references to criminal, criminal-procedural and criminal-executive legislation, according to which the investigation and consideration of criminal cases on crimes committed by legal entities, as well as the execution of sentences are carried out in the general order. The article analyses the sanctions that can be applied in committing a corruption crime. Particular attention is paid to the liability of legal entities for violations of legislation in the field of prevention of corruption and sanctions applied to legal entities. Key words: corruption, anti-corruption legislation, legal liability, criminal liability, administrative liability, civil liability, sanctions, legal entities.

On the Issue of Criminal Liability of Legal Entities in the Russian Federation Through the Prism of Harmonization of Law

Introduction: despite the fact that the first legal entities appeared in Ancient Rome, the modern Russian legislation refers to them only as the subjects of civil and administrative responsibility. In accordance with the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (hereinafter, referred to as UK RF), only sane individuals who have reached the age of criminal responsibility are subject to criminal liability. Against the background of this provision, the possibility of introducing the criminal liability of legal entities, at first glance, is rather doubtful. The arising doubts are also supported by the fact that neither a single principle, no a norm or institution of criminal law of the Russian Federation is applicable to a legal entity. However, in the vast majority of foreign countries, this institution has been successfully operating for many years, during which it has shown the validity and the objective necessity of its existence, in whose connection the authors aim to investigate the problems of introducing the criminal liability of legal entities in the Russian Federation. Methods: the methodological framework for the study is a set of methods of scientific knowledge, among which the main ones are the methods of systematicity, abstraction, analysis and comparative law. Conclusions: as a result of the study of the domestic, international and foreign experience, in particular, the international treaties of the Russian Federation and the criminal legislation of various countries, the proposals are formulated for the legislative regulation of the criminal liability of legal entities in the Russian Federation, as well as the need for further legal rethinking of the problem, which will be expressed in drawing public attention to the importance of this issue, its legislative regulation, the review of previously submitted draft federal laws on introducing the criminal liability of legal entities in order to identify and eliminate the provisions that prevent their adoption.