With industrialization and globalization, corporations acquired the capacity to influence societies for better or worse. Yet, corporations are not traditional objects of criminal law. Justified by notions of personal moral guilt, criminal norms have been judged inapplicable to fictional persons who "think" and "act" through human beings. The expansion of new corporate criminal liability (CCL) laws since the mid-1990s challenges this assumption. This volume surveys current practice on CCL in diverse civil and common law jurisdictions, exploring the legal conditions for liability, the principles and options for sanctioning, and the procedures for investigating, charging, and trying corporate offenders. It considers whether domestic CCL laws are converging around the notion of "due diligence" and, in any case, the implications of CCL for those charged with keeping corporations, and other legal entities, out of trouble.

Inhalt

Preface.- Table of Contents.- List of Abbreviations.- Part I The Analytical Framework.- Emergence and Convergence: Corporate Criminal Liability Principles in Overview; Mark Pieth and Radha Ivory.- Part II Country Reports.- Corporate Criminal Liability in the United States: Is a New Approach Warranted?; Ved P. Nanda.- Corporate Criminal Liability in England and Wales: Past, Present, and Future; Celia Wells.- Corporate Criminal Liability in Scotland: The Problems with a Piecemeal Approach; Findlay Stark.- Corporate Criminal Liability in France; Katrin Deckert.- Corporate Criminal Liability in the Netherlands; Berend F. Keulen and Gritter.- La responsabilité pénale de l'entreprise en droit Suisse ; Bertrand Perrin.- Corporate Criminal Liability in Germany; Martin Böse.- Societas Delinquere Potest? The Italian Solution; Cristina de Maglie.- La Responsabilidad de las Personas Jurídicas en el Derecho Penal Español ; Miguel Ángel Boldova and María Ángeles Rueda.- Principales Aspectos de la Nueva de Responsabilidad Penal de las Personas Jurídicas en Chile (Ley Nº20.393); Nelly Salvo. Corporate Criminal Liability in Hungary; Ferenc Santhaand Szilvia Dobrosci.- Why the Czech Republic Does not (yet) Recognize Corporate Criminal Liability: A Description of Unsuccessful Law Reforms; Jií Jelínek and Karel Beran.- The Recognition of Legal Persons in International Human Rights Instruments: Protection Against and Through Criminal Justice?; Piet Hein van Kempen.- Part III Conclusions.- Final Remarks: Criminal Liability and Compliance Programs; Mark Pieth.