Corporate Criminal Liability in France

Abstract

Since the coming into force of the new Penal Code on March 1, 1994, French law recognizes corporate criminal liability. The legislature opted for a relatively wide notion of corporate criminal liability, which applies, in principle, to all offenses and to all legal persons, including companies. However, the legislation requires that an organ or representative of the legal person commits the offense “on the behalf of” this entity. Penalties for legal persons may be of a pecuniary and a non-pecuniary nature. There are also penalties which can be incurred only by legal persons. No general principles under French law constrain the judge when deciding the penalties incurred by a convicted legal person. However, it is possible to derive some guiding principles when it comes to sanctioning legal persons. The French legislator has also established some specific procedural rules concerning legal persons. But, with a few exceptions, the majority of the rules of criminal procedure applicable to natural persons also apply to legal persons.