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.

This master's thesis is concerned with an issue of criminal liability of legal entities. Emphasis is put on the czech legislation, more precisely on the act no. 418/2011 Sb., on Criminal Liability of Legal Entities and their Prosecution, that came into force on 1. 1. 2012. This act was adopted in response to the obligations under international law that are binding on the Czech Republic. The main aim of this thesis is to make its readers possible to get acquainted with the regulations of the establishment and termination of criminal liability of legal entities in the Czech Republic and to point out some problematic parts of the law. The thesis is divided into three parts. The first part deals with the general questions of criminal liability of legal entities, in particular with the historical development of such a conception, its possible models, definition of the legal entity and with the reasons for and against criminal liability. The second and the most extensive part of this thesis is dedicated to the analysis of the current Czech legislation. It focuses attention on the issues concerning the scope of the Act, extent of the criminalization of corporations, requirements of the imputability of the criminal act to the corporation and concerning the issue of transferring criminal liability to the...

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.

This thesis analyses criminological factors related to crime of legal entities. Criminal liability of legal entities has not been a subject of such extensive research as criminal liability of natural persons, let alone criminology of crime of legal entities - the origins of this field first appeared in the first half of 20th century, when the criminologist E. H. Sutherland introduced and described a white-collar crime phenomenon. Crime of legal entities is an up-to-date issue, being a phenomenon of a considerable danger and it is desirable to make it a subject of a comprehensive research in order to find the most suitable prevention or an adequate reaction to that crime. Understanding criminological factors related to crime of legal entities can help to prepare matching provisions which can serve as an efficient tool for prevention of and response to this type of crime. This thesis is divided into four chapters. The first one addresses the crime of legal entities in general - it describes the historical evolution of crime of legal entities in the Anglo-American judicial system and its variations in the continental judicial system. After that is presented the history of legal regulation in Czech Republic and its current state. The second chapter discusses the criminological factors related to crime...

The disciplinary liability of legal entities, which the regulation normally accepts, is not an exception to the principles of existing guilty and of personalizing the sanction: it is a liability for action and fault of the legal entity. In particular, it analyzes the liability of legal entities by the actions of their administrators. And, also, it studies the cases in which the Law provides certain complements or qualifications to that liability. Above all, the cases in which the disciplinary liability of the administrators is evident. It also addresses the liability of entities without personality and it highlights the advantages and difficulties that their application entails. / La responsabilidad sancionadora de las personas jurídicas, que acepta con normalidad el ordenamiento, no es una excepción a los principios de culpabilidad y de personalidad de las sanciones: se trata de una responsabilidad por acción y culpa propias de la persona jurídica. En especial, se analiza la responsabilidad de las personas jurídicas por la actuación de sus administradores. Y, asimismo, se estudian los supuestos en que el Derecho prevé ciertos complementos o matizaciones a esa responsabilidad. Sobre todo, los casos en los que se consagra laresponsabilidad sancionadora de los propios administradores. Se aborda también la responsabilidad de entes sin personalidad y se ponen de relieve las ventajas y dificultades que su aplicación entraña.

Compliance management system as a tool for exclusion of legal entities from criminal liability Abstract Although the area of compliance in the Czech legal environment is evolving relatively quickly, several ambiguities still arise here, especially in connection with criminal proceedings. Therefore, this work primarily deals with problematic issues related to the exclusion of a legal entity from criminal liability according to § 8 (5) of Act No. 418/2011 Coll., On criminal liability of legal entities and proceedings against them, as amended (hereinafter "TOPO "). The first part of the thesis is comprehensively devoted to defining the cumulative conditions of the attribution of a crime from the point of view of the material concept because without them it is not possible to consider the attribution of criminal liability to a legal person. In the second part, it is seamlessly linked to the construction of § 8 (5) TOPO, where based on the conclusions made by constant case law and the professional public, a tool to develop a legal entity from criminal liability is considered a functional compliance management system (CMS). It must contain three basic pillars of measures, namely (i) preventive, (ii) detection, and (iii) reaction. The final part of the work is devoted to these pillars, where the essential...

This thesis analyzes the most important issues of criminal liability of legal entities that was, after the complicated process of enactment of the act number 418/2011 Sb., recently established by the Czech law. This topic still causes discussions and its development is not at the end. The thesis consists of eight chapters. The first chapter is a brief introduction to the structure of the text and contains defining of the basic aims of the study. Chapter two describes historical development of the topic in Europe and also shows much easier acceptance of criminal liability of corporations in common law. The third chapter compares different concepts of the topic established by several members of European union and characterises the modifications of this topic worldwide. In chapter four is explored effect of the enactment of the criminal responsibility of legal entities on basic terms and principles of Czech criminal law. Chapter five deals with imperfect form of administrative sanctioning of legal entities in Czech republic as one of the most important reasons of establishing their criminal liability. Part two of this chapter explains the distinctions between administrative and criminal ways of punishing illegal conduct of corporations. The sixth chapter illustrates the process of enacting the act...

A heated debate was going on during the past few years among Czech lawyers concerning punishment of legal entities. It culminated as the law on criminal liability of legal entities and proceedings against them was passed. However, this has not solved all the problems of legal regulation of delicts committed by legal entities. The question of reform of administrative punishment remains relevant, although not urgent. The current legislation suffers certain defects, in particular its incompleteness, which has to be addressed in legal practice by using laws whose primary field of application lies elsewhere; those laws do not address all peculiarities of administrative punishment of legal entities. While the main discussion is centered on substantive law, proceedings for administrative delicts of legal entities deserve attention as well. My thesis is divided into four parts. The first part briefly outlines the historical development of the proceedings for administrative delicts of legal entities. The second part provides a brief overview of the current state of legislation, focusing on the sources of law. The third part deals with general principles of law relevant for proceedings for administrative delicts of legal entities, especially the right to a fair trial, as described in the Convention for the Protection...

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...