Far from the Principle of ‘Societas Delinquere Non Potest’ – The Establishment of Criminal Liability of Legal Persons in Hungary and Beyond
Discussions on the possibility to attribute liability to legal persons for committing offences are far from new. The Romans already had a clear position on this and were opposed to the idea that a persona could be anything else than a natural person. Thus, Ulpian specifies that a municipium cannot be responsible for dolus since it is a legal person, i.e. a fictive entity (Catargiu, 2013, 26.). Even though this default position evolved and despite the consequent lenience towards accepting forms of liability (including criminal liability) of legal persons, the classical idea that legal persons could not be criminally punished prevailed for a long time – and resulted in the adage ’societas delinquere non potest’. Read more… (Petra Ágnes Kanyuk)
Corporations have been undertaking very risk-taking activities abroad. Since they are met with less protective legislations in third-countries, some subsidiaries have been conducting their business without proper respect for human rights. As a result, not only the subsidiaries but also the parent companies can be held liable for violations of such rights in civil proceedings in their home countries. However, there is no standard international convention or jurisdictional body to regulate the relation between business and human rights and the legal remedies that victims can access. In this regard, victims must call upon domestic courts in a pursuit of the most favorable jurisdiction to obtain a civil legal redress mechanism.