Daniel Futej Daniel Grigel’ The Slovak Republic is looking to toughen criminal prosecution of corporations. It has proposed a special act be adopted and take effect from May 1 2015 that introduces criminal liability for legal persons. The act's aim is to prevent criminal offences from being concealed behind the activities of corporations, and to penalise corporations that have aided in the commission of a criminal offence. It should be noted that the Slovak Republic is the last of the EU member states to introduce criminal liability for legal persons. However an interim measure was introduced by Slovakia in 2010 that allows the courts to punish a legal person by setting a monetary amount, up to and including the entire assets of that legal person, to be seized. The bill spells out the criminal offences a legal person can be charged with. This includes, inter alia, the endangerment of health through defective food products, endangerment of health through unlicensed medicines, blackmail, illegal construction, endangerment and harm to the environment, bribery, false accusations, and unlawful use of personal data. A legal person is considered criminally liable if a criminal offence is committed in its interests, as a part of or through its activities, and at the same time if it was committed by:
April 24 2014
