Sanctions Applicable to Corporate Persons in States of the European Community

• NCJ Number: 70685
• Journal: Revue de droit penal et de criminologie Volume: 60 Issue: 3 Dated: (March 1980) Pages: 163-190
• Author(s): R Screvens
• Date Published: 1980
• Length: 28 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Language: French
• Country: Belgium
• Note: General report presented at the international conference held from April 30 to May 6, 1979 in Messina at the International Center for Sociological, Criminal Justice, and Corrections Studies and Research.

Annotation

Sanctions which can be applied to corporate entities in various European community countries are explored.

Abstract

While penal responsibility is recognized in some Common Market countries, e.g., Ireland, the Netherlands, Great Britain, and to a lesser extent Denmark, the majority of the countries, e.g., Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Italy, and West Germany do not currently apply such sanctions. The revised French criminal code adopts the principle of penal responsibility for groups of a commercial, financial, or industrial nature, and Belgium plans to follow suit. In many cases, however, individual responsibilities are linked to collective ones. Thus, the group may often be punished for the actions of its individual members. In general, sanctions against corporate entities take the form of community, administrative, or civil action rather than of repressive punishment or imprisonment, which is hardly possible for a group. Sanctions may be intended either to protect members of the group from internal management actions or to protect the community at large from the group. Such sanctions may only be imposed when an organization profits from an offense, or when the responsible individual cannot be identified. Possible penalties in Common Market countries include fines, which are the most common penalty; confiscation of goods, often accompanied by dissolution to put the company out of business; and injunctions against particular actions to end dangerous or irregular situations. Also applicable are security deposits for prevention, reparation of damages, revocation of certain market rights, professional suspensions, closing or supervision of the establishment, and negative publicity. Temporary disqualification of a corporate entity is rare, and warnings are ineffective. The question of how to deal with an organization when illegal practices have ceased and offending personnel have been removed prior to intervention remains unresolved. Notes are supplied.