While in several jurisdictions corporate criminal liability is accepted, in Brazil the maxim still prevails that corporations cannot commit crimes. In common law countries the attribution of criminal liability to corporations was developed more than a century ago, and the concept of corporate criminal liability has been extensively discussed. This work is an attempt to look into the common law experience and to offer a plausible basis for the introduction of corporate criminal liability in Brazil. The research is essentially theoretical; it is mostly based on relevant literature from Britain, Canada and United States, three exponents of common law jurisdictions, and on relevant literature from Brazil.

While in several jurisdictions corporate criminal liability is accepted, in Brazil the maxim still prevails that corporations cannot commit crimes. In common law countries the attribution of criminal liability to corporations was developed more than a century ago, and the concept of corporate criminal liability has been extensively discussed. This work is an attempt to look into the common law experience and to offer a plausible basis for the introduction of corporate criminal liability in Brazil. The research is essentially theoretical; it is mostly based on relevant literature from Britain, Canada and United States, three exponents of common law jurisdictions, and on relevant literature from Brazil.

Given the overwhelming financial and human costs of crime committed through the incorporated entity, this thesis explores corporate criminal liability in criminal law as a mechanism of social control for corporate crime. First, this thesis traces the fundamental claims regarding corporate criminal liability in both the jurisprudential and sociological literatures in an effort to explore how law applies liability in a criminal context to the incorporated entity. Second, the contemporary corporate criminal liability landscape in Canada is examined. In particular, an examination of Bill C-45 as codified corporate criminal liability and as criminal law in action is empirically grounded in a detailed review of both the black letter law of corporate criminal liability and the judicial case documents on prosecutions against incorporated entities for corporate crimes. Finally, this thesis analyzes the socio-legal environment of corporate criminal liability through its construction and operation within Canadian criminal law. Overall, as a result of the legal, cultural, political, and economic privileges of the incorporated entity, corporate criminal liability is a product of a socio-legal environment that inhibits the ability of criminal law to be an effective mechanism of social control for corporate crime. Only when corporate criminal liability recognizes the complexities of the social, economic, and organizational structures and practices that are shaping corporate criminal activities can it become an effective mechanism for regulating the most harmful corporate misconduct. Otherwise, as this thesis demonstrates, corporate criminal liability will continue to be all bark and no bite. / Thesis (Master, Sociology) -- Queen's University, 2014-06-17 16:56:40.627

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, School of Law, 2015. / At present, international law has not succeeded in establishing a way through which multinational corporations (MNCs) can be regulated effectively and compelled to adhere to international human rights standards. This poses a problem for states that rely heavily on the investment of MNCs for economic development. African states in particular compete for investment by reducing their regulatory mechanisms in order to attract MNCs. This allows MNCs to engage in practices that violate human rights and contribute to the commission of international crimes. This thesis seeks to address this problem by exploring how MNCs can be held criminally liable in international law if they are involved in serious human rights abuses and international crimes. In the twentieth century, two seminal events in international criminal justice illustrate that there was evidence that the notion of holding multinational corporations criminally liable was possible. These include i) the jurisprudence of the Allied Tribunals at Nuremberg after World War II which contemplated the possibility of corporate criminal liability and ii) the negotiations during the establishment of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the 1990s which considered proposals for the extension of criminal liability to corporations. At the national level, many states provide for corporate criminal liability. This is often derived from the establishment of criminal liability of an official of the corporation. The United Kingdom and Australia, however, have successfully set out how a corporation may itself be found criminally liable without the need to derive its criminal liability from an official. These developments show that the idea of holding MNCs criminally liable, either through a derivative or non-derivative process, is possible and achievable. In particular, this thesis proposes that MNCs can be found criminally liable for aiding and abetting international crimes under Article 25(3)(c) of the Statute of the ICC. In proposing a way through which this can be achieved, this thesis does two things: i) it extracts principles of non-derivative criminal liability established in the United Kingdom and Australia and ii) it develops a theory of corporate criminal liability for aiding and abetting international crimes that incorporates these principles. This theory underpins the proposed new approach to the establishment of corporate criminal liability for aiding and abetting in the ICC.

The submitted thesis comprehensively deals with selected issues of corporate criminal liability. The emphasis is mainly put on the Czech legislation, on the Act No. 418/ 2011 Coll., on Criminal Liability of Legal Entities and their Prosecution that became effective on the January 1, 2012. Foreign legislation concerning corporate criminal liability in selected countries within civil law legal system is taken into account in the thesis as well while focusing mainly on the French legislation. The aim of the thesis is to carry out a critical analysis of the Czech corporate criminality legislation and to point out its ambiguities, contentious parts and potential shortcomings. The thesis is divided into three parts. The first part deal with certain general issues related to the concept of criminal liability of legal entities, including its historical development. The second part focuses on the scope of the Act No. 418/ 2011 Coll., in particular it examines the characteristics of the entities that are subjected to the corporate criminal liability and the extent of criminalization of legal persons. Third part and the longest part examines (i) corporate criminal liability's establishment with emphasis put on the matter of imputability and (ii) the legal succession with regard to the transfer of the...

L’indagine svolta si è proposta di realizzare un’analisi sistematica dell’illecito della persona giuridica, così come delineato dal decreto legislativo 231/2001, con lo scopo di ricercare, da un lato, un ordine metodologico funzionale alla lettura critica del concetto di colpa organizzativa e di evidenziare, dall’altro, i tratti di eccentricità – o di continuità strutturale – rispetto al modello della colpa penale pensato per la persona fisica. Il lavoro – che si è avvalso altresì del raffronto con la nozione di corporate criminal liability elaborata nell’ordinamento inglese – ha dimostrato come l’illecito della corporation ricalchi, benché con le peculiarità proprie del paradigma, le caratteristiche strutturali del tipo colposo d’evento, presentandosi anzitutto come inadempimento di un dovere prudenziale al quale segue la verificazione di un fatto lesivo in cui si concretizza il rischio specifico che lo standard cautelare era volto a scongiurare. All’analisi degli elementi costitutivi dell’illecito della persona giuridica hanno fatto seguito alcune proposte di revisione del sistema, sulla base delle problematiche e degli spunti emersi in relazione al meccanismo ascrittivo della responsabilità, ai criteri di verificabilità empirica del modello organizzativo, nonché all’ambito di estensione soggettiva della disciplina. / This research proposal aims to analyse the specific paradigm of corporate criminal responsibility with special regard to its consistency with the requirements of criminal negligence. The analysis has shown that the corporate crime foreseen by Legislative Decree No. 231/2001 should be considered as a “special” offense of negligence which essentially acts as a breach of a precautionary duty: namely, a violation of a rule with precautionary objectives that imposes to the corporation the adoption of compliance programs aimed to prevent the occurrence of harmful events. The research aspires – from a de jure condendo viewpoint and by using a comparative approach focused on the English system of corporate criminal liability – to elaborate some reform proposals in order to modulate the culpability criteria on the type of offense that may actually occur and in relation to the judicial determination of adequacy of compliance programs.

This thesis deals with the topic of corporate criminal liability and its criminological aspects. When adopting a law, it is necessary to examine its impact on the society as well as the individual. However, the Czech Act No. 148/2011 Sb. on Corporate Criminal Liability was adopted, above all, because of the pressure exerted by European law. That is possibly the reason why there has never been, until now, much focus on the criminological aspects of corporate crime or the prevention of corporate crime. It follows that the elaboration of this kind of thesis is imperative. The first chapter of this thesis addresses the historical concept of white-collar criminality which was developed by one of the greatest criminologists of the 20th century - Edwin H. Sutherland. After exploring his work, and works of his followers, the author of this thesis aims to summarize the main characteristics of corporate criminality. In addition, the first chapter specifies the focus and the individual sections of this thesis. The second chapter is concerned with the etiology of corporate criminality, i.e. with the reasons why corporations commit crime at all. In this part of the thesis, the author analyses the data on corporate criminality collected abroad, nevertheless, the main focus is on the data coming from the Czech...

The text discusses the importance of risk analysis in the context of Compliance Management Systems for companies in German criminal law. It emphasizes that, despite personal criminal liability for individuals, companies can face consequences through special rules for fines or confiscation orders if their representatives commit offenses on behalf of the company. A common offense leading to such consequences is the breach of supervisory duties under Section 130 of the German Act for Administrative Offences (OWiG). The text highlights the necessity of a Compliance Risk Analysis as the foundation for any Compliance Management System. This analysis involves three key steps: identifying structural compliance risks, evaluating the existing compliance management system, and analyzing risks based on consequences and probability. The structural analysis examines existing compliance structures such as guidelines, training, and process descriptions. Key points include the significance of corporate culture in compliance, focusing on the 'tone from the top,' the 'zero-tolerance principle,' and the error culture. The text concludes with the definition and implementation of measures to avoid risks, encouraging regular risk analyses for continuous improvement of compliance management systems. In summary, the text addresses how companies can identify, assess, and manage risks related to legal compliance to establish and maintain effective Compliance Management Systems.

Partendo da un’estesa analisi empirica della corruzione attiva di pubblici agenti stranieri, che rivela le dinamiche individuali, organizzative e ambientali che ne caratterizzano la realizzazione, la tesi si propone di condurre un esame critico sia della fattispecie criminosa di cui all’art. 322-bis, co. 2, n. 2, che della relativa responsabilità ex d. lgs. 231/2001 a carico degli enti metaindividuali, onde esaminarne i profili di efficacia nella prospettiva preventiva. Lo studio normativo si serve, oltre che della ancora esigua giurisprudenza italiana sinora intervenuta in materia, anche di sei ipotetici casi di corruzione internazionale da parte di imprese multinazionali con sede in Italia, basate su altrettanti casi reali ricostruiti grazie all’attività di enforcement del Foreign Corrupt Practices Act statunitense. Il lavoro di analisi evidenzia diverse esigenze di adeguamento normativo o di mutamento degli indirizzi interpretativi, che interessano la sfera penalistica (toccando in particolare l’oggetto giuridico della fattispecie, la definizione delle qualifiche pubblicistiche, l’estensione applicative della figura del traffico di influenze, la definizione degli obblighi impeditivi delle diverse cariche societarie, in particolare nei gruppi di società), quella processualistica (specialmente in tema di bis in idem internazionale) e quella della responsabilità da reato degli enti (in particolare in punto di responsabilità del cessionario d’azienda per gli illeciti di corruzione internazionale commessi nell’ambito dell’azienda ceduta, e dunque in materia di obblighi di pre-acquistion due diligence). La necessità di un cambio sostanziale si palesa altresì in relazione alla metodologia e ai contenuti dei modelli di organizzazione, gestione e controllo delle imprese multinazionali per la prevenzione del reato di corruzione internazionale, e di conseguenza nei criteri di valutazione dell’adeguatezza del modello in sede giudiziale. / Moving from an exhaustive empirical analysis of the active bribery of foreign public officials, which reveals its individual, organizational and environmental issues/dynamics, the thesis conducts a critical review of the criminal offence set forth in the Art. 322-bis, par. 2, n. 2 of the criminal code, and the consequent liability of legal entities, aimed at testing their real efficiency in terms of crime prevention. The legal analysis is conducted not only on the basis of the still limited Italian jurisprudence, but also by examining six hypothetical cases of international bribery perpetrated by Italian MNEs, which follow the structure of six real U.S. F.C.P.A. violation cases. The study illustrates the need for a series of normative adjustments or an interpretative adaptation of the legislation currently in force, which concern the sphere of criminal law (especially the individuation of the protected interest, the concept of foreign public official, the extent of trading in influence offence, the definition of the company’s officials duties to prevent other’s commission of bribery in particular among the corporate groups), criminal procedure law (specifically, the risk of an international double jeopardy) and the legal person’s liability regime (above all in the field of successor’s liability and pre-acquistion due diligence duties). The demand for a substantial change is revealed as well in relation with the methodology and the contents of the multi-national enterprises anti-bribery compliance programs, and thereof in the criteria for their judicial assessment.

Avec l’accentuation du libéralisme, les entreprises multinationales ne cessent d’être de plus en plus présentes dans les États en développement, et certaines sont peu scrupuleuses du respect des normes environnementales. Par ailleurs, notons que la plupart de ces États ne disposent pas de mécanismes juridiques contraignant ces entreprises de répondre à d’éventuels crimes contre l’environnement qu’elles sont susceptibles de commettre sur leurs territoires. Or, en l’absence de telles dispositions, peu de sociétés se conforment aux politiques permettant d’internaliser les risques en raison de leur coût élevé. La volonté de maximiser le profit amène ces entreprises à se livrer à des actes attentatoires à l’environnement, à la santé et à la sécurité des individus lorsque rien ne les contraint à procéder autrement. De façon générale, il appartient à l’État sur le territoire duquel opère une société de réglementer ses activités. Précisons que dans plusieurs États en développement, les entreprises multinationales échappent aux mesures contraignantes en vertu de l’influence financière qu’elles exercent sur les dirigeants de ces États. De même, l’impunité des crimes contre l’environnement commis dans les pays en développement découle aussi du manque de volonté politique accentué par le phénomène de la corruption. Malgré la multiplicité de traités et de conventions internationales dédiés à la protection de l'environnement, ces instruments ne sont pas directement applicables aux sociétés multinationales, considérées comme des acteurs non-étatiques. Alors, les pays développés d’où proviennent la majeure partie des entreprises multinationales sont appelés à combler cette lacune en prenant des mesures qui obligent leurs entreprises à se préoccuper de la préservation de l’environnement dans leurs activités. Cette thèse propose d’examiner les mécanismes juridiques par lesquels les crimes contre l’environnement survenus dans les pays en développement peuvent entraîner des poursuites pénales au Canada. En l’absence de législation ayant une portée extraterritoriale explicite en la matière, cela exige de se référer au droit existant et de proposer une nouvelle approche d’interprétation et d’adaptation tenant compte des récents développements envisageant la protection de l’environnement comme une valeur fondamentale pour la société canadienne. De nos jours, la portée de la protection de l’environnement au Canada requiert l’abandon des anciennes conceptions du principe de la territorialité pour adopter une autre approche plus soucieuse des nouvelles réalités entraînées par la mondialisation économique. Il serait donc légitime pour le Canada d’étendre sa compétence pour réprimer les crimes contre l’environnement survenus à l’étranger lors des activités menées par ses ressortissants. La nécessité de réprimer les atteintes à l’environnement survenues à l’étranger devient plus pressante lorsque ces crimes présentent un degré de gravité comparable à celui des crimes internationaux. / Due to trade liberalization, multinational enterprises (MNEs) are overwhelmingly engaged in developing countries’ industries. Unfortunately, many of those MNEs pay scant attention to environmental preservation. Yet, almost all developing countries lack effective rules designed to protect the environment from polluting activities operated by MNEs. In the absence of any incentive, it is impossible for MNEs to avoid environmentally harmful operations. As economic agents, MNEs are not willing to adopt environmental protection costs without any legislation compelling them to do so. The profit maximization rationale underlying corporate policy leaves little room for incurring environmental preservation costs and only voluntary measures are applied in the management of polluting operations. As a general principle, the regulation of MNEs’ conduct falls upon the State whose territory is directly harmed by polluting operations. However, the lack of resources of developing countries as well as the financial influence of MNEs has weakened environmental protection regulation in many states. The preservation of the environment from polluting activities of MNEs has also undermined by the lack of political will of developing countries which is increased by the corruption phenomenon. Despite the large number of international treaties and conventions designed to protect the environment from pollutant threats, those international instruments cannot directly apply to MNEs as they are non-state actors. Hence, developed countries, under whose law many MNEs are incorporated, are required to fill this gap in regulating their MNEs’ activities abroad. This dissertation suggests the examination of juridical mechanisms by which environmental crimes which take place in developing countries may trigger criminal prosecution in Canada. Given the absence of Canadian regulation dealing explicitly with extraterritorial criminal conduct of MNEs, this research seeks to provide a new approach to existing law in order to deal with transnational environmental crimes, bearing in mind that environmental protection has emerged as a fundamental value in Canadian society. Nowadays, the values represented by environmental protection entail the shift of the traditional territoriality principle since worldwide economic activities have brought transnational threats of global concern. Therefore, we hold that Canada would be entitled to extend its competence so as to assert jurisdiction over environmental crimes occurred abroad during operations conducted by Canadian citizens. The need to assert extraterritorial jurisdiction to environmental crimes committed within foreign sovereignty becomes more pressing if those crimes reach the same level of gravity as international crimes.