Criminal liability of collective entilities for corruption offences (substantive aspects)

The classical concept of criminal liability, involving the imposition of a penalty for the culpable commission of a prohibited act, perceived such liability as being applicable only in respect of natural persons. The situation was, and is, different as regards civil liability, whose essence is constituted by the obligation to compensate for damage caused by the obliged person or another person: such liability may apply to both natural and legal persons. The contemporary legal systems of some countries also envisage the imposition of criminal liability as regards certain legal persons and similar organisational entities – either within criminal codifications or on the basis of different statutes. This paper attempts to present the problems involved with the concepts of corporate criminal liability, followed by an analysis of the approaches taken by different international documents (e.g. Council of Europe Criminal Law Convention on Corruption (1998) with additional Protocol (2005), Convention on the Fight against Corruption involving Officials of the Member States of the EU (1997) as well a Framework Decision on Corruption in the Private Sector (2003), but also in Poland –on the basis of the Collective Entities’ Liability for Prohibited Acts Subject to Penalty Act 2002. The next part will focus on the liability of a collective entity for corruption offences listed in Article 16 of the Act. It is derivative in nature, being related to the criminal liability of a natural person linked to this entity. The fact that a natural person has committed a punishable act still must be confirmed by one of the final judicial decisions or prosecutor’s decisions mentioned in Article 4.Dr hab. Mirosława Melezini - Uniwersytet w Białymstoku, prof. UwB, Dr Andrzej Sakowicz - Uniwersytet w Białymstok