Legal Entities as Subjects of Criminal Liability. Foreign Experience and Russian Outlook

This paper is dedicated to public relations, which occur in the sphere of criminal activity of legal entities. The aim of this work is to predict the most rational way to implement criminal liability of legal entities in Russia and to base these predictions on criminal law and criminology basis. Stepwise analyzing the legal nature of legal persons, historical and comparative aspects of criminal liability of legal persons abroad and attempts to introduce this model in Russia, in conjunction with the analysis of the doctrinal developments, the author comes to the following conclusions. We should wait a long before implementing criminal liability of legal entities in the Russian Federation, at least until we reach stable economics, social and political processes. It is desirable to conduct the training of law enforcement and the judiciary employee. Thee should be dedicated to the identification and disclosure of schemes for committing economic crimes. It is necessary to produce preventive work with representatives of small and medium-sized businesses, as well as with the representatives of big business and transnational corporations, aimed at improving the confidence in the state apparatus, the judiciary and law enforcement agencies. It would be extremely useful to annually file aggregated statistics about the state of economic crime, and where to include information about corruption offences committed by legal persons and environmental crimes, to study the state of economic crime and identify the relevant time of introduction of criminal liability of legal entities.