Diploma Thesis: Criminal Liability of Legal Entities Abstract: This graduation thesis deals with problems of potential introduction of criminal liability of corporations into the legal order of the Czech Republic Its main purpose is to analyze selected legal aspects of criminal liability of corporation, compare foreign approaches with the Czech Draft Act and to suggest possible amendments for the future introduction of the Draft Act.

A crise global do capitalismo eclodida no ano de 2008 evidenciou o risco sistêmico a que a atividade econômica ficou exposta a partir da sua desregulamentação, implementada, a partir dos anos 1980, pelo chamado neoliberalismo, e do desenvolvimento dos meios de comunicação e informáticos, que a interligou em nível planetário. Seus efeitos devastadores somente puderam ser contidos por meio de intervenção estatal, com a injeção de muito dinheiro público na atividade econômica privada, o que trouxe à tona a discussão quanto ao real papel regulatório do Estado sobre a economia nesse contexto. No panorama atual do desenvolvimento da sociedade capitalista e contemporânea, há, muitas vezes, verdadeiro divórcio entre os interesses do real proprietário da empresa (ausente ou passivo) e o corpo de gestores contratados da companhia, impondo a necessidade de maior confiabilidade e transparência na apuração e nos demonstrativos dos resultados empresariais. Surge daí o conceito de boas práticas de governança corporativa, do qual um dos pilares de sustentação é o denominado compliance, que funciona como uma estrutura verificadora e validadora do bom funcionamento, da correção e da confiabilidade da administração, prevenindo riscos imanentes à atividade empresarial. Surge, nesse cenário, uma concepção de autorregulação regulada ou forçada da atividade econômica, pela qual o Estado supera uma postura meramente repressora de desvios encontrados, que relegava ao particular sua própria organização, passando a impor uma pauta mínima de obrigações organizacionais, que necessita ser cumprida e implementada para prevenir riscos de condutas antiéticas ou mesmo criminosas. O papel do direito penal, sempre mais modesto do que dele se espera, acaba ganhando muita importância por atuar como norma de reforço à tutela de deveres organizacionais e de autofiscalização da atividade econômica. Os meios eleitos para atingir esses objetivos são a utilização de tipos penais de perigo abstrato, omissivos ou comissivos por omissão; a incriminação da corrupção privada; a promulgação de leis extraterritoriais que preveem a colaboração entre Estados no combate à criminalidade; a adoção de sistemas legais autodenominados administrativos, mas que são penais em sua essência; a crescente aceitação e utilização da responsabilidade penal da pessoa jurídica. Partindo de constatações criminológicas e proposições político-criminais, a presente tese visa a propor a criação de um sistema de imputação penal das pessoas jurídicas baseado na ideia de fato próprio culpável, com a culpabilidade atrelada ao conceito de defeito de organização, visando a superar o déficit na aplicação do modelo adotado pela Lei nº 9.605/1998, na qual não há o estabelecimento de quaisquer critérios para delimitar o âmbito das ações corporativas culpáveis. Para tanto, buscaram-se, em modelos jurídicos alienígenas (italiano, chileno e espanhol), experiências e exemplos que pudessem auxiliar na proposição de critérios reitores de um novo modelo adaptado à realidade brasileira, pelos quais se almeja a maximização das possibilidades de aplicação do instituto, de um lado, e a maior amplitude possível das garantias penais, de outro. / The global crisis of capitalism, which emerged in 2008, displayed the systemic risk that economic activity was exposed to. This risk occurs due to the deregulation implemented from 1980 by the so-called neoliberalism as well as due to the development of both the media and IT which have globally interconnected economic activity. The devastating effects of neoliberalism could only be restrained through state intervention, with the injection of great amounts of public money into private economic activity. In this context, this practice brought up the discussion on the actual regulatory role of the state in economy. In the current scenario of the development of contemporary capitalist society, there is often an actual separation between the interests of the real owner of the company (who is absent or passive) and the board of hired managers of the company. This fact generates the need for increased reliability and transparency in the calculation and statements of business results. The concept of good corporate governance practices is thus generated, which has compliance as one of its supporting pillars. Compliance works as a testing and validating structure of managerial functioning, correctness and reliability, thus, preventing risks that are inherent to business activity. In this scenario, the concept of regulated or forced self-regulation of economic activity was created. By this concept, the state goes beyond the previous position of merely repressing identified deviations, which meant that the organization could regulate itself. Now the state imposes an agenda of organizational duties, which need to be fulfilled and implemented to prevent risks of unethical or even criminal behavior. The role of criminal law, which has had a more modest scope than expected, ends up gaining importance because it acts as reinforcement rule for the protection of organizational duties and self-inspection of economic activity. The means chosen to achieve these goals are the use of criminal types of abstract danger, which may be either omissive or comissive by omission; incrimination of private corruption; enactment of extraterritorial laws that provide for collaboration among States in combating crime; adoption of legal systems in the administrative scope that are criminal in their essence; the increased acceptance and use of the criminal liability of legal entities. Starting from criminological findings and political-criminal propositions, this thesis aims at proposing the creation of a criminal imputation system of legal entities, based on the idea of a fact itself that can be considered as liable. The guilt is attached to the concept of organization defect in order to overcome the deficit in the implementation of the model adopted by Law No. 9.605/1998, which has not established any criteria to specify the scope of corporate actions that may be considered as liable to penalty for law offence. Therefore, we researched experiences and examples in foreign legal models (Italian, Chilean and Spanish legal models) that could help to propose criteria that lead to a new model adapted to the Brazilian reality, in which we aim, on the one hand, to maximize the possibilities of this new legal model, and, on the other hand, reach penal guarantees as widely as possible.

A crise global do capitalismo eclodida no ano de 2008 evidenciou o risco sistêmico a que a atividade econômica ficou exposta a partir da sua desregulamentação, implementada, a partir dos anos 1980, pelo chamado neoliberalismo, e do desenvolvimento dos meios de comunicação e informáticos, que a interligou em nível planetário. Seus efeitos devastadores somente puderam ser contidos por meio de intervenção estatal, com a injeção de muito dinheiro público na atividade econômica privada, o que trouxe à tona a discussão quanto ao real papel regulatório do Estado sobre a economia nesse contexto. No panorama atual do desenvolvimento da sociedade capitalista e contemporânea, há, muitas vezes, verdadeiro divórcio entre os interesses do real proprietário da empresa (ausente ou passivo) e o corpo de gestores contratados da companhia, impondo a necessidade de maior confiabilidade e transparência na apuração e nos demonstrativos dos resultados empresariais. Surge daí o conceito de boas práticas de governança corporativa, do qual um dos pilares de sustentação é o denominado compliance, que funciona como uma estrutura verificadora e validadora do bom funcionamento, da correção e da confiabilidade da administração, prevenindo riscos imanentes à atividade empresarial. Surge, nesse cenário, uma concepção de autorregulação regulada ou forçada da atividade econômica, pela qual o Estado supera uma postura meramente repressora de desvios encontrados, que relegava ao particular sua própria organização, passando a impor uma pauta mínima de obrigações organizacionais, que necessita ser cumprida e implementada para prevenir riscos de condutas antiéticas ou mesmo criminosas. O papel do direito penal, sempre mais modesto do que dele se espera, acaba ganhando muita importância por atuar como norma de reforço à tutela de deveres organizacionais e de autofiscalização da atividade econômica. Os meios eleitos para atingir esses objetivos são a utilização de tipos penais de perigo abstrato, omissivos ou comissivos por omissão; a incriminação da corrupção privada; a promulgação de leis extraterritoriais que preveem a colaboração entre Estados no combate à criminalidade; a adoção de sistemas legais autodenominados administrativos, mas que são penais em sua essência; a crescente aceitação e utilização da responsabilidade penal da pessoa jurídica. Partindo de constatações criminológicas e proposições político-criminais, a presente tese visa a propor a criação de um sistema de imputação penal das pessoas jurídicas baseado na ideia de fato próprio culpável, com a culpabilidade atrelada ao conceito de defeito de organização, visando a superar o déficit na aplicação do modelo adotado pela Lei nº 9.605/1998, na qual não há o estabelecimento de quaisquer critérios para delimitar o âmbito das ações corporativas culpáveis. Para tanto, buscaram-se, em modelos jurídicos alienígenas (italiano, chileno e espanhol), experiências e exemplos que pudessem auxiliar na proposição de critérios reitores de um novo modelo adaptado à realidade brasileira, pelos quais se almeja a maximização das possibilidades de aplicação do instituto, de um lado, e a maior amplitude possível das garantias penais, de outro. / The global crisis of capitalism, which emerged in 2008, displayed the systemic risk that economic activity was exposed to. This risk occurs due to the deregulation implemented from 1980 by the so-called neoliberalism as well as due to the development of both the media and IT which have globally interconnected economic activity. The devastating effects of neoliberalism could only be restrained through state intervention, with the injection of great amounts of public money into private economic activity. In this context, this practice brought up the discussion on the actual regulatory role of the state in economy. In the current scenario of the development of contemporary capitalist society, there is often an actual separation between the interests of the real owner of the company (who is absent or passive) and the board of hired managers of the company. This fact generates the need for increased reliability and transparency in the calculation and statements of business results. The concept of good corporate governance practices is thus generated, which has compliance as one of its supporting pillars. Compliance works as a testing and validating structure of managerial functioning, correctness and reliability, thus, preventing risks that are inherent to business activity. In this scenario, the concept of regulated or forced self-regulation of economic activity was created. By this concept, the state goes beyond the previous position of merely repressing identified deviations, which meant that the organization could regulate itself. Now the state imposes an agenda of organizational duties, which need to be fulfilled and implemented to prevent risks of unethical or even criminal behavior. The role of criminal law, which has had a more modest scope than expected, ends up gaining importance because it acts as reinforcement rule for the protection of organizational duties and self-inspection of economic activity. The means chosen to achieve these goals are the use of criminal types of abstract danger, which may be either omissive or comissive by omission; incrimination of private corruption; enactment of extraterritorial laws that provide for collaboration among States in combating crime; adoption of legal systems in the administrative scope that are criminal in their essence; the increased acceptance and use of the criminal liability of legal entities. Starting from criminological findings and political-criminal propositions, this thesis aims at proposing the creation of a criminal imputation system of legal entities, based on the idea of a fact itself that can be considered as liable. The guilt is attached to the concept of organization defect in order to overcome the deficit in the implementation of the model adopted by Law No. 9.605/1998, which has not established any criteria to specify the scope of corporate actions that may be considered as liable to penalty for law offence. Therefore, we researched experiences and examples in foreign legal models (Italian, Chilean and Spanish legal models) that could help to propose criteria that lead to a new model adapted to the Brazilian reality, in which we aim, on the one hand, to maximize the possibilities of this new legal model, and, on the other hand, reach penal guarantees as widely as possible.

The thesis concerns the questions related to the criminal liability of legal entities, with focus on their sanctioning. The criminal law is being traditionally linked to the criminal liability of an individual. The social environment has changed in the last decades in such a way that it was vital to reflect its negative consequences. In a number of EU countries, the action resulted in implementation of criminal lability of legal entities. The Czech Republic used to be a country where the criminal lability of legal entities was not complied with for many years. The change was brought by adopting the act of No. 418/2011 valid from 1st January 2012, dealing with criminal liability of legal entities and its related proceedings. The thesis is devided into four chapters. The opening chapter focuses on theoretical questions of criminal liability of legal entities. Different approaches to the matter are analysed here in detail, international and European commitments of the Czech Republic in relation to criminal liability of legal entities are also mentioned. The second chapter is related to the basic rules of sanctioning the legal entities. Theoretical definition of "sentence" and "preventive measure" terms can be found in the first part of the chapter. All rules for sentencing and specific criteria for...

The topic of this Master's thesis is the analysis of criminal liability of legal entities in the Czech republic that is contained in the Act no. 418/2011 Sb., on Criminal Liability of Legal Entities and Procedure against them, which was adopted on 22. 12. 2011. It is a topical isuue, which still contains a lot of unanswered questions. The aim of the thesis is to familiarize the reader with this new institute in the Czech legal system, with which there are not many practical experiences yet. Taking into account the extent of the thesis, it does not include a comprehensive analysis, but it focuces on key issues in the legal regulation. The work is also dedicated to the regulation of this institute in the Spanish legal system. The thesis is divided into three chapters. The first chapter deals with general issues that are related to the criminal liability of legal entities. It presents the historic development, models of liability of legal entities for offences, international regulation, corporate criminal liability in the Common law system and the reasons for and against introducing criminal liability of legal entities into legal system. The second chapter is devoted to the analysis of current legislation criminal liability of legal entities in the Czech Republic. It is focused on the nature of the...

(Abstract in English) This thesis deals with certain question of criminal liability in the case of legal ethities, which presents a recent phenomenon in Czech legal setting. The most important reason for working on this subject was my interest in the area of criminal law. In this context, the new law on criminal liability of legal persons constituted an ideal subject for processing, which would allow me deeper acquaintance with the problems about this important topic. In the Chapter One the work describes genesis of a newly adopted law in Czech republic and in the next Chapter Two compares it with another bill, which was proposed and promptly rejecter by the Parliament in the first reading in 2004. It goes on to analyse the question of presidential veto and its consequences. The Chapter Three, about the main lines of argumentation is subdivided into two parts. Part One describes the main lines of argumentation used by proponents of this new law, including a range of examples from the area of environment protection. Part Two deals with the main lines of argumentation used by adversaries of this new law. The Chapter Four describes the importance of the selected institutes of the law on criminal liability of legal entities. The work's focal point lies in the analysis of key elements of Czech law in the...

O presente trabalho teve por escopo a análise da imputação por crimes ambientais no processo penal em face da pessoa jurídica à luz do direito de defesa, considerando a ausência de disciplina na Lei 9.605/98 e a remissão legal genérica aos Códigos Penal e de Processo Penal. Optou-se pela exposição do tema no presente estudo em duas partes distintas, sob a perspectiva do direito penal (capítulos 1 e 2) e do direito processual penal (capítulos 3 e 4). A escolha justificou-se em virtude da relação mantida entre os dois ramos, que mantêm uma mútua complementariedade funcional e, concomitantemente, guardam espaços de tensão. A partir desta constatação, analisou-se a expansão do direito penal sob a perspectiva da sociedade do risco. Ainda, verificou-se de que forma a Lei 9.605/98 incorporou estas tendências de expansão, com estudo do bem jurídico, dos crimes de perigo abstrato e do emprego da técnica de assessoriedade administrativa. Delimitada a influência da sociedade do risco sob a dogmática penal ambiental, estudou-se a responsabilidade penal das pessoas jurídicas, para que se entendesse de que forma foi inserida no ordenamento. A partir da abordagem dos requisitos estabelecidos para esta responsabilidade penal, indicaram-se as dificuldades de adequação à pessoa jurídica dos conceitos tradicionais de ação e culpa, construídos tradicionalmente sob uma perspectiva individual. Verificou-se que os entraves do processo de responsabilização resultam em denúncias genéricas, formuladas em afronta ao artigo 41 do Código de Processo Penal. Ainda, viu-se que novas análises da responsabilidade penal coletiva partem da superação de alguns padrões ontológicos da teoria do delito e adotem uma perspectiva normativa. As conclusões obtidas na primeira parte foram aplicadas sobre a segunda parte do trabalho, a partir da análise do direito de defesa e da imputação. Foi visto ser garantido à pessoa jurídica o direito à ampla defesa em toda sua extensão. Dentre os problemas processuais manifestados pela sujeição passiva do ente coletivo, analisaram-se os mais relevantes sob a perspectiva do direito à ampla defesa: denúncia, citação, aplicação dos institutos da transação penal e suspensão condicional do processo, interrogatório, aplicação de pena e cabimento de ações impugnativas autônomas. / The scope of the present study was to analyze the imputation of environmental crimes to legal entities under the constitutional right of defense, considering the lack of discipline in Law 9.605/98 and generic references to the Criminal and Criminal Procedure Codes. The presentation of the theme under study has been divided into two parts, from the perspective of criminal law (Chapters 1 and 2) and criminal procedural law (Chapters 3 and 4). Such division is justified by virtue of the relationship established between the two branches, which maintain a mutual functional complementariness and, simultaneously, hold tension spaces among themselves. Based on this finding, the expansion of criminal law from the perspective of the risk society was then analyzed. Thereafter, the present study focused on how Law 9.605/98 had incorporated such expansion trends, by studying the concept of legal right, abstract danger crimes and the ancillary use of administrative law and principles. After having delimited the influence of risk society under environmental criminal dogmatic, the study aimed at the criminal liability of legal entities, in order to understand how it was inserted in the legal system. Upon the analysis of the requirements set forth for the criminal liability of legal entities, the study presents the difficulties related to adapting the traditional concepts of action and guilt to the legal entity, since they were traditionally forged under an individual perspective. It was shown that such difficulties may lead to the filing of generic complaints, circumstance that infringes Article 41 of the Criminal Procedure Code. Moreover, the study highlighted that new analyzes of collective criminal liability derive from the overcoming of some traditional ontological patterns of the crime theory, under a normative perspective. The conclusions reached in the first part were then applied to the second part of the dissertation, from the analysis of the right of defense and imputation. From our standpoint, the right to broad defense to its full extent is guaranteed to the legal entity. Among the procedural problems related to the criminal liability of legal entities, the most relevant under the perspective of broad defense were herein addressed: complaint, summons, application of institutes such as plea bargaining and probation of the lawsuit, interrogatories, imposition of penalty and suitability of autonomous objection lawsuits.

This master's thesis focuses on the topic of criminal liability of legal entities, particularly on the concept of exculpation within the meaning of Section 8 subsection 1 paragraph b) and subsection 5 of the Act No. 418/2011 Coll., Act on Criminal Liability of Legal Entities and Proceeding Against Them. The reason for our focus rests in fact that the legal rules regulating the concept of exculpation in this act are highly controversial among legal scholars and legal practitioners where there is usually no relevant case law providing answers for resolving such controversies so far. The aim of this thesis is to introduce to the domestic law a not very familiar instrument of a compliance program consisting of preventive, detective and reactive measures designed to prevent criminal behaviour within legal entities, to eventually detect such behaviour and to respond to such behaviour. Concurrently, an effective compliance program can fulfil conditions for the application of the exculpation provisions. Even though the focus of this thesis is on criminal liability of legal entities, it does not omit the context of administrative and civil liability. The thesis is divided into four chapters. The first chapter introduces the concept of criminal liability of legal entities in a broader historic, legal and...

1 Abstract Issues of Criminal Liability of Legal Entities The aim of the thesis is to analyse and evaluate the current legal regulation of criminal liability of legal entities regarding the most problematic institutions of law contained in the Act No. 418/2011 Coll., on Criminal Liability of Legal Entities and Proceedings against Them, which came into effect on 1 January 2012. The subject of the thesis is current and still developing, based on the increasing amount of convicted legal entities. The regulation is affected by numerous amendments. Despite the lawmaker's effort, the act contains many problematic provisions criticized by experts. Therefore, new amendments can be expected in the near future. The thesis is composed of five chapters. Chapter One deals with the general issues regarding the criminal liability of legal entities, its progress in the Czech Republic, the process of passing the Act on Criminal Liability of Legal Entities and the arguments in favour of and against the enactment of the regulation. Chapter Two focuses on the substantive criminal law incorporated in the Act on Criminal Liability of Legal Entities and examines institutions of law contained in the aforementioned act, mainly its problematic parts. Chapter Three concentrates on sanctioning of legal entities, because the Act on...

The submitted diploma thesis focuses on the area of criminal liability of legal entities, which is not only the most controversial area, but also represents the very core of the Act on criminal liability of legal entities. The aim of this work is a detailed analysis of the positive legal regulation of imputability of a crime to a legal entity, focusing on confrontation of provisions concerning the possibility of exculpation, especially section 8(5) of Act No. 418/2011 Coll., with the fundamental principles of substantive and procedural criminal law. Introducing the topic, the concept of legal entity is defined, then the arguments for and against the adoption of criminal liability of legal entities are presented, as well as models of criminal liability of legal entities. At the end of the first chapter, the issue of the scope of criminalization is analyzed. The second chapter is devoted to the positive condition of imputability of a crime to a legal entity. This includes not only the very structure of imputability, but also the individual persons whose acts can be imputated to the legal entity. Furthermore, the following chapter focuses on the negative condition of imputability, i.e., the exculpation, or non-imputation of the crime to a legal entity. The provision regulating exculpation is subject...