THE CRIMINAL-LEGAL ASPECT OF THE LEGAL PERSONS’ RESPONSIBILITY

• Main Author: Ivan Joksić
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: University Business Academy in Novi Sad Faculty of Law for Commerce and Judiciary 2010-08-01
• Series: Pravo
• Subjects: A legal person (legalist homo), A person being responsible, Criminal responsibility, Criminal act, Sanctions
• Online Access: https://casopis.pravni-fakultet.edu.rs/index.php/ltp/article/view/317

In Serbia, legal persons had been responsible for violations and commercial offences until the bringing the new „Law of legal persons` responsibility for doing criminal acts“. However, there had been a great vacuum concerning legal persons` criminal responsibility. In other words, it had legally been impossible to proceed, through a criminal proceeding, legal persons` illegal acts and processes. First of all, we think of those acts and processes done by legal persons or a person being responsible for a legal person or acting in the name of him/her, containing the elements of the criminal act. However, in the nature of things, a legal person is impossible to be responsible for all criminal acts. On the contrary, there is a series of criminal acts which cannot objectively be done by legal persons. The purpose of introducing the criminal responsibility of the legal persons is in the need of a punitive reaction to typical criminal acts almost regularly done by legal persons and not being criminally responsible for them. Such a legal situation, or a legal vacuum, has been solved by bringing the Law of legal persons` responsibility for doing criminal acts. This legal act wholly regulates and covers both a material aspect of legal persons` criminal responsibility and a proceeding aspect through regulating the rules of the criminal procedure during the leading of criminal proceeding against the accused legal persons as well as through punitive sanctions which can be uttered. Besides giving a short retrospection of the development of legal persons` criminal responsibility, the theme of this paper work will include a criminal-legal aspect of legal persons` responsibility taking into account the previously mentioned Law. Furthermore, it is given a short retrospection of legal persons` criminal responsibility being regulated by the comparative law with a special accent on our neighborhood countries. At the same time we will point at the existence of relevant international instruments (the UN, SE, EU documents), which had an influence on reestablishing of legal persons` criminal responsibility in our criminal legislature.