Government Investigations & White Collar Crime

Criminal Liability of Legal Entities in Spanish Law: Case of Transnationality

Due to the importance of the issue of the Corporate Criminal Compliance at both national and international level, Bufete Escura has prepared and article in order to inform about the criminal liability of legal entities which is generating a growing jurisprudential body that develops the legal provisions in this regard, since these are not always sufficient to answer all the questions that arise. Hereby, Bufete Escura analyses the case of transnationality under the frame of Corporate Criminal Compliance.

One of the issues is the case of transnationality is what happens in cases in which the legal entity judged is foreign.

Article 23.1 of the Judiciary Spanish Law (LOPJ) states that "In the criminal order shall correspond to the Spanish jurisdiction the knowledge of the causes for crimes and offenses committed in Spanish territory (...), without prejudice to the provisions of the international treaties in which Spain is a part". In the case of a foreign legal entity that committed a crime in Spain, the judgment of the Supreme Court 583/2017, July 19th, Supremo upheld the conviction that the National Court had previously imposed on a company in Mali that had committed a crime of money laundering in Spain. Actually, this company had been condemned for a crime against public health in the previous judgment of the Supreme Court 154/2016, February 29th.

Read the entire article.

< Back