The Criminal Code reform does not put an end to corporate corruption

Three years after incorporating the liability of legal persons into the Criminal Code, the Courts have initiated few proceedings against companies and no final sentences have been handed down yet.

The introduction of the corporations’ criminal liability in the 2010 reform of the Criminal Code (CC) and the appearance of regulatory compliance systems to prevent criminality in companies seemed to be the remedy to fight against economic crimes in companies. However, after more than three years, the expected results have not been obtained.

The Prosecutor of the Supreme Court and the Head Prosecutor’s Office of the Administrative Section of the Supreme Court, explained that “at the moment there are few proceedings open against corporations and no judgment has been handed down in this regard yet “.

There is a great deal of skepticism surrounding this issue, as the Supreme Court justices believe that if changes are not made to the discretionary principle and to the investigation process, it will be difficult for   criminal liability of companies to be understood and to achieve its true objective.

It is evident that the change of regulation has not generated any transformation in the structure of the companies and that it has not worked, not achieving the expected objectives with this reform. Nor is the new reform of the Criminal Code expected to resolve many aspects, since the magistrates continue to raise important doubts in the matter, such as the system of designation of the company’s representative before a court, the exonerating reasons for companies, the adequacy of this tool in the Spanish legal system or the assumptions raised to allow the exemption of the liability of the legal person.

In order to sustain the skepticism with which they welcome this reform, the majority of judges of the High Court consider that the current model included in our Criminal Code can only work in an Anglo-Saxon system, defending that what the legislator has done has been to import a model in a biased manner, deviating from the changes that would be necessary to adopt in our legal model, although they fear that it will end up being complied with.

If this article has been of interest, we also suggest you to read the following article published on our website: Is Prevarication, the explanation for any irregular conduct of the Public Administration?.