JUS - 2011 - 1-2

ABSTRACT: Italian criminal law of corporations has undergone in 2002 a large reform which poses serious problems as to its compatibility with principles of justice and economic democracy. Despite the “liberal” attitudes overtly voiced at the time of its inception, it contradicts one of the main features of a developed, not merely traditional, sort of liberalism, namely the awareness of the strict need to survey and check power (especially economic, fi nancial and industrial power) in its tendency to be opaquely concentrated in few hands. First and foremost in any consideration of public justice should be the equality in the distribution of relevant knowledges. As criminologists well know, white collar crime thrives in the dark but darkness in turn makes legal business and institutions blind to illegality and criminality. Contemporary criminal law scholars can no more afford to neglect how the wider cultural, institutional and economic environments, which encompass the scope of their professional decisions, is apt to defi ne also the “justice” thereof, especially when criminal law impinges on economic relations and therefore on the conditions (not rarely themselves worth a criminal law’s protection) of an adequate knowledge distribution among stakeholders and common citizens.
KEY WORDS: theory of justice, criminal law, economic regulation, corporate crimes, white collars
SOMMARIO: 0. In ricordo di Armando Bartulli – 1. Il liberalismo come «arte della separazione» – 2. Diritto penale dell’economia e «giustizia di sfondo». Il diritto penale «degno di fi ducia» – 3. La distribuzione «giusta» delle informazioni tra gli attori sociali – 4. Disciplina penale-societaria e condizioni di una democrazia economica.

ABSTRACT: The Bankruptcy Offenses, even after the recent reforms of the civil code, of the corporate crimes and of the Bankruptcy Law, are characterized by exception rules regarding several common principles: the defi nition of the authors between the rule of law and the non-retroactivity principle, the harm principle and the consequences of Bankruptcy conduct, the causation of Bankruptcy and the mens rea, the permitted risk, the economic crisis of the enterprise and the principle of sufficient precision of the law. The research outlines a road map of typical questions of “exception laws” concerning the Bankruptcy Offenses, despite the common rules of the penal system about legality, wrongdoing and culpability, and the solutions of the more important reform projects.
KEY WORDS: Bankruptcy Offenses, , exception laws, violation of constitutional principles, «systemic» general reforms.
SOMMARIO: 1. Premessa – 2. L’esigenza del ritorno ai principi generali quale ordine costituzionale, prima che europeo, della materia penale fallimentare – 3. La specialità e la gravità dei reati fallimentari, dal Cinquecento, alla legge del 1942, a oggi – 4. I soggetti attivi. Riserva di legge e limiti quantitativi definiti con decreto ministeriale – 5. Logiche da diritto speciale: a) Deroga all’art. 2 c.p. – 6. (segue) b) Deroga all’art. 2 c.p.p. in tema di sindacabilità penale delle questioni giuridiche extrapenali non pregiudiziali (imprenditore vs. fallito) – 7. Altre soluzioni «da diritto speciale»: la «causazione del dissesto» nel passaggio dalla vecchia alla nuova (DLgs n. 61/2002) bancarotta da reati societari – 8. L’offensività della bancarotta: la ricerca (troppo lunga e disattesa) di un nesso di rischio e di lesività tra condotta ed evento, al riparo da interpretazioni conformi alla Costituzione – 9. Il nesso di rischio e il nesso causale tra condotte illecite e dissesto. La risposta ermeneutica, legislativa e de lege ferenda oggi – 10. Incongruenze «di sistema» nella disciplina vigente della bancarotta societaria (art. 223, legge fall.) – 11. Reati fallimentari e «antigiuridicità»: operazioni compensative infragruppo e rapporto tra nuova revocatoria, nuovo concordato, e bancarotta – 12. La bancarotta semplice e l’esigenza di una griglia normativa che defi nisca il rischio consentito: principio di determinatezza e «soglie di rischio» ancora legittimamente affrontabili dall’imprenditore in crisi – 13. Dalla colpevolezza del nullum crimen sine culpa al rapporto fra elemento soggettivo fattuale accertato nella cognizione e colpa d’autore sondata nel processo di esecuzione – 14. Conclusioni.

ABSTRACT: This article presents an empirical study of Italian Supreme Court decisions issued after 2002 reform of articles 2621-2639 of the Italian Civil Code. The case-study clearly shows the weakness of the actual criminal system in this respect, and the need of a new reform.
KEY WORDS: corporate crime law, crim es.
SOMMARIO: 1. Premessa. – 2. I reati di false comunicazioni sociali. – 3. La tutela del capitale sociale. – 4. Il reato di infedeltà patrimoniale. – 5. Il reato di illecita infl uenza sull’assemblea. – 6. La tutela delle attività di vigilanza. – 7. L’estensione delle qualifi che soggettive. – 8. Osservazioni conclusive.

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

ABSTRACT: Besides «classical» (and legitimate) readings, Kafka’s text seems to be open to a nonconventional interpretation able to point out the intrinsically «existential» trait of the text. The point of view is given by man’s fi nite structure. This structure implies that man must always decide within a «situation», with all the joint conditionings and limits that situation it self puts on knowledge and refl ection. Because of his fi nite structure, man is, either consciously or unconsciously, accountable towards others, and this is an absolute accountability since God is its constitutive principle. This is an existential situation that obliges K., and each of us, to wonder about the sense of life: judge’s «little note book» is a metaphor of that. Such a question could be advanced just on the «border» of reason, which imposes to overcome canons of rational «legality»: no general and abstract Law, either legal or ethical, could «clear» man once for all.
KEY WORDS: legal proceeding, judgement and guilt, finiteness.
SOMMARIO: 1.Una breve premessa – 2. Una strada di periferia. Un caseggiato popolare. Il tribunale – 3. La donna delle pulizie – 4. Il pittore Titorelli – 5. Di fronte alla Legge – 6. «…come un cane…».

ABSTRACT: This study examines a chapter of the Italian law concerning rewards: the revocation of their conferment occurred as a result of unworthiness of those who had obtained them at the time.
KEY WORDS: awards, rewards, revocations, unworthiness.
SOMMARIO: 1. Premessa – 2. La revoca delle onorifi cenze «al merito della Repubblica italiana» – 3. La revoca delle ricompense «al merito civile» – 4. La revoca delle ricompense «al valore civile» – 5. La revoca delle onorifi cenze di «cavaliere del lavoro» – 6. La revoca degli assegni vitalizi «a favore dei cittadini che abbiano illustrato la Patria e versino in stato di particolare necessità».

ABSTRACT: The tradition of the European culture produced the idea of Human Rights and of Common welfare, both assimilated already before the modern age and both able to create the notion of «Human rights». Nevertheless, the cultural origin of the idea od Human rights is very ancient and basically concerns duties before rights. Therefore the idea of relationship between individuals – called Social contract – born from the imperative duties of the Decalogue (today still common between Hebrews and Christians) from which the modern rights are drawn. The delivery of the divine Law – unique, eternal and free – is a gift conditional on man’s fi delity towards God. Modern constitutions are modelled on the content of the Decalogue; in turn they are originated by a pact between citizens and the State, which shapes obligations to corresponding performances. Constitutions can be changed over time in order to implement the Common Good, or equitable justice, that is instead established forever in the Pact of the Decalogue and represents the reference criterion against which the validity of new laws is judged.
KEY WORDS: Social contract, Decalogue, Constitutions, equitable justice.
SOMMARIO: 1. Costituzione europea e Decalogo – 2. Donazione della legge e condizione monoteista – 3. Natura del patto ed effetti dell’inadempimento – 4. Revoca della sanzione e conferma della legge – 5. Contratto sociale e legge Mosaica nella fi losofi a hobbesiana – 6. Patto sociale e fonti bibliche nella teologia politica spinoziana – 7. La fi losofi a politica contemporanea tra Europa e Stati Uniti – 8. L’ecumenismo della Chiesa Cattolica e la dichiarazione di Assisi della seconda metà del XX secolo.

ABSTRACT: In the view of trace the roots of labor law, the essay begins with an analysis of the theological foundations of the just wage. The historical re-reading of several social encyclicals testifi es the refusal by the Magistery of the Church of the mercantilist conception of the work and the importance of some principles that could allow the «just» determination of the retributive performance. The principle contained today in the article 36 of the Italian Constitution is then interpreted as the formalization from the legal system of an ethical judgment on the one hand and, on the other hand, as a rule able to establish and explain the specialty of labour law paradigm.
KEY WORDS: Just wage, catholic social doctrine, labour law.
SOMMARIO: 1. Premessa – 2. L’irruzione della dottrina sociale della Chiesa nel culmine della “questione sociale” – 3. L’intervento dello Stato nei rapporti economici come postulato necessario del Magistero Ecclesiale – 4. La «giusta mercede» e i suoi fondamenti teologici – 5. (segue): a) la persona imago Dei – 6. (segue): b) la caritas – 7.1. (segue): c) la giustizia sociale oltre il mercato – 7.2. (segue): tra giustizia e carità: la questione del salario familiare – 7.3. (segue): sulla “misurazione” dei bisogni – 8. L’art. 36 Cost. come positivizzazione di un giudizio etico – 9. I “valori” accolti dal precetto costituzionale: a) la dignità della persona – 10. (segue): b) la solidarietà – 11. (segue): c) la giustizia distributiva oltre la giustizia commutativa – 12. La giusta retribuzione chiave di lettura dell’intero paradigma giuslavorista.

ABSTRACT: The purpose of this essay is to argue that an international approach, as opposed to a purely domestic one, is especially appropriate and helpful for the purpose of correctly applying the Italian legislation on quasi-criminal liability of legal entities (Legislative Decree 231/2001), in situations involving companies belonging to a multinational group having links whit the Italian territory and/or the Italian legal order. The starting point of the analysis is an overview of the scope and the underlying rationale of the different liability rules affecting multinational groups of companies in a variety of situations. In particular, reference is made to the liability rules in antitrust cases, in cross-border insolvency cases ad in cases involving civil actions for the recovery of environmental or catastrophic damages (including also consideration of the potential availability in common law jurisdictions of the forum non conveniens doctrine). On the whole, the development of the analysis supports two main conclusions, namely (i) in order to determine which legal entity among those belonging to a multinational group may be sanctioned pursuant to the liability rules provided by Legislative Decree 231/2001, regard must be had to the applicable proper law governing the issue of the imputation link between the individual having committed the criminal act and the legal entity on whose behalf or service such individual must be deemed to have acted; and (ii) for the purpose of avoiding liability under Legislative Decree 231/2001 on the ground that the criminal act was committed notwithstanding an adequate surveillance system had been organized, implemented and put to work, multinational groups are not mandatorily required to set up ad hoc survaillance bodies in accordance with Italian local practice, but (in theory at least) are entitled to maintain their own multinational codes of conduct or intra-group international compliance rules, provided always that the anti-criminal preventive effect of such codes or rules may be shown to be equivalent to (i.e., not less stringent than) the Italian surveillance models, as the latter have developed in the domestic practice.
KEY WORDS: Multinational group of companies, quasi-criminal liability of legal entities, liability rules in antitrust cases, liability rules in cross-border insolvency, liability rules in environmental and catastrophic cases, forum non conveniens doctrine, proper law of the imputation issue, codes of conduct or intragroup compliance rules of multinational groups.
SOMMARIO: 1. Premessa – 2. Gruppi multinazionali e diritto antitrust: i casi Pasta di Legno e ICI – 3. Gruppi multinazionali e insolvenza transfrontaliera: il caso Eurofood – 4. Gruppi multinazionali e responsabilità della controllante in base alla teoria della mere instrumentality: il caso Amoco Cadiz – 5. Gruppi multinazionali, responsabilità della controllante e dottrina del forum non conveniens: il caso Bhopal – 6. Considerazioni fi nali e spunti per una lettura internazionale del DLgs n. 231/2001.

ABSTRACT: The Author examines questionable points as to existing provisions on criminal liability of legal entities in relation to offences committed abroad while performing their activities, in the context of globalization which induces Italian corporations to adopt international standards and to re-locate elsewhere their activities. The Author outlines on the one hand the complex relationships between criminal substantive provisions contained in the penal code as to crimes committed abroad and on the other hand those circumstances that would impede or prevent the Italian law on criminal liability of legal entities to be fully applied in such cases.
KEY WORDS: corporations, criminal responsibility, corporate crimes committed abroad.
SOMMARIO: 1. Internazionalizzazione delle società e illeciti commessi all’estero – 2. La disciplina contenuta nell’art. 4 DLgs n. 231/2001 – 3. Rapporti con la disciplina del codice penale. – 4. Il richiamo all’art. 7 c.p. – 5. Il richiamo agli artt. 9 e 10 c.p. – 6. Problematiche applicative dell’art. 4 DLgs n. 231/2001: il requisito della doppia incriminazione. – 7. Delitti puniti con la multa. – 8. La presenza in Italia dell’autore del reato e della sede della società. – 9. Il principio del ne bis in idem. – 10. Reato commesso in parte in Italia: l’ambito applicativo dell’art. 6, 2°comma, c.p. – 11. Ne bis in idem e art. 6, 2°comma, c.p. – 12. Problematiche sull’accertamento della responsabilità dell’ente per il reato commesso all’estero. – 13. Ricadute nel sistema sanzionatorio

ABSTRACT: The legislation subsequent to law no. 689/1981, providing for several instances of administrative liability of legal entities, demonstrates that administrative fi nes are not only used as retributive justice tools, but also as administrative action tools.
KEY WORDS: administrative liability; administrative fi nes; legal entity.
SOMMARIO: 1. La responsabilità amministrativa dell’impresa come punto di emersione di un problema più generale: la responsabilità amministrativa degli enti – 2. La legge n. 689/1981 tra l’ideale di un diritto penale amministrativo (o di un diritto sanzionatorio comune) e le impostazioni tradizionali sul potere sanzionatorio della pubblica amministrazione – 3. Il problema della responsabilità amministrativa degli enti nell’impostazione della legge n. 689/1981: dall’adesione al modello penalistico alle aperture di dottrina e giurisprudenza – 3.1. Le posizioni iniziali e la successiva evoluzione – 3.2. I precedenti favorevoli a riconoscere una responsabilità amministrativa diretta di soggetti diversi dalle persone fi siche – 3.3. Prime conclusioni parziali – 4. La legislazione speciale – 4.1. Le sanzioni amministrative in materia tributaria – 4.2. Le sanzioni amministrative in materia di disciplina dell’attività di intermediazione fi nanziaria – 4.3. Le sanzioni amministrative in materia di disciplina dell’attività bancaria e creditizia – 4.4. Altre ipotesi di sanzioni amministrative previste in attuazione della normativa comunitaria – 4.5. Le sanzioni amministrative in materia di disciplina dell’emittenza radiotelevisiva – 4.6. Le sanzioni amministrative di competenza delle autorità amministrative indipendenti – 4.7. Le sanzioni amministrative previste da altre leggi speciali – 4.8. Conclusioni sull’analisi della legislazione speciale: verso il superamento del modello unitario di illecito amministrativo delineato dalla legge n. 689/1981? – 5. La discontinuità tra la responsabilità amministrativa degli enti, delle società e delle persone giuridiche disciplinata dal DLgs n. 231/2001 e la legislazione speciale – 6. Conclusioni generali