Trestní odpovědnost právnických osob po novele provedené zák. č. 183/2016 Sb.
Criminal liability of legal persons after the amendment carried out by the Act No. 183/216 Coll.

Summary/Abstract: The paper on the criminal liability of legal persons after the amendment carried out by the Act No. 183/2016 Coll., addresses important amendment of the Act No. 418/2011 Coll. on the criminal liability of legal persons and on the procedure conducted against them, as amended. The most important amendment is the new wording of section 7 of the Act No. 418/2011 Coll. substituting the previous exhaustive list of criminal offences for which a legal person is liable. From the entry into force of the amendment, it is substituted by the concept according to which a legal person is liable for all criminal offences (offences and crimes) as stated in the Penal Code, with the exception to those explicitly excluded by the law. It is followed by the extension of the principle of universality (section 4 of the Act No. 418/2011 Coll.), regulation of effective repentance of legal persons (section 11 of the Act No. 418/2011 Coll.) and the statutory limitation of the criminal liability of legal persons (section 13 and section 25 of the Act No. 418/2011 Coll.). The paper further evaluates the provision of section 8 of the Act No. 418/2011 Coll. concerning the imputability of criminal offence to a legal person, except for introduction to subsection 1 (removal of a possibility to act “in the name” of a legal person), establishment of the category of a “person in the leading position within a legal person” in section 8 subsection 1 a), b) of the Act No. 418/2011 and notably the possibility of a legal person to be discharged of a criminal liability (section 8 subsection 5 of the Act No. 418/2011) which should be rather interpreted as non-imputability of criminal liability for particular criminal offence to a legal person. With regard to an exculpation of a legal person it is not appropriate to speak about a liberation or a liberation reason used in connection with misdemeanours or other administrative offences which in respect to legal persons are based on the objective liability but as of exculpation or exculpation reason since criminal liability of legal persons is subjective by its nature. Finally, the paper offers an interpretation as to what presumptions should have been met so that the exculpation of a legal person in accordance with section 8 subsection 5 of the Act No. 418/2011 could potentially happen.

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