Mario Romano

ABSTRACT: Italian criminal law has undergone important reforms over the last ten years. Tax law, bankruptcy law as well as corporate law have been thoroughly amended, so that their relationship with criminal law is now signifi cantly different from what it used to be up to the recent past. As a result, the task Italian criminal lawyers are now facing, i.e. to build the scattered, piecemeal solutions brought about by this wave of new legislation into a coherent system, is a diffi cult one. While the reform of criminal tax law, which was adopted in 2000, deserves appreciation, the one which affected corporate criminal law in 2002 pose serious problems as to its consistency with the economic and legal system of a modern democracy. The changes made to bankruptcy law in 2005 and 2006 are also perplexing since they have modifi ed only the titles concerning corporate law aspects leaving untouched the criminal sanctions. At present, the distinctive feature of Italian criminal law of corporations seems to be the lack of homogeneity between its various parts, thus making global reform proposals both necessary and desirable in order to achieve a satisfactory level of guarantees for stakeholders and citizens at large. KEY WORDS: criminal law, bankruptcy law, corporate law, tax law, corporate crime. SOMMARIO: 1. Premessa. Il tema di un convegno del 1978 rivisitato trent’anni dopo: il ricordo di Armando Bartulli e del suo magistero dalla cattedra di Diritto penale commerciale in Università Cattolica – 2. Delimitazione dell’indagine ai reati trattati nei corsi accademici di diritto penale commerciale – 3. Il diritto penale tributario: l’inversione di rotta della riforma del 2000 rispetto al 1982 e i pregi dell’intervento legislativo – 4. La riforma delle procedure concorsuali (2005 e 2006) e l’attuale situazione del diritto penale fallimentare: aperture innovative e la singolare mancanza di specifi che coperture penali – 5. L’infelice riforma dei reati societari ad opera del DLgs n. 61/2002. – 6 Correttivi rigoristici e persistenti défaillances nella legge n. 262/2005 a tutela del risparmio. – 7. Per una urgente revisione del diritto penale societario – 8. Sulla legittimazione del diritto penale in economia

The Author looks into the current financial crisis and its causes, i.e. the massive subprime borrowing and the lack of transparency of the economic operators in creating and marketing huge amounts of unsecured financial instruments. He also points to criminal behaviours, which were favoured by negligent rating agencies as well as insufficient controls by national regulators. Among future remedies, the Author advocates new supranational rules on keeping books and records, using particular care when it comes to company information and strengthening of the controls by public authorities. Compliance with such new rules should be ensured by resorting, when necessary, to severe criminal sanctions.