THE CRIMINAL LIABILITY OF LEGAL PERSONS FOR CRIMINAL ACTS

Abstract

This paper deals with the issue of criminal liability of legal persons. The introduction of the insti- tute of criminal liability of legal persons has placed in the foreground the issue of procedural regulation of the status of the new procedural subject. It is essential that legal persons, in addition to the legal capacity of the prosecutor in a criminal proceeding, obtain the party's ability on the side of the accused, although due to lack of processing capacity they still cannot take any actionsby themselves, but only through the individuals they represent or are being represented by. In addition, the actionoffense can be done just by the individual and the concept of subjective elements and the penal guilt can only be established by indi- viduals themselves, and it can only impose criminal sanctions. Although the concept of criminal liability in our theory and the applicable criminal laws replaced the notion of guilt, the more room for the legal responsibility of the crimes may not only be criminal, but it can also be a misdemeanour. Therefore, as utterly justified, Bosnia and Herzegovina has the task to pass a separate law on the liability of legal per- sons for criminal offenses. This lawwould regulate substantive and procedural criminal law issues which are specific to the legal entity, such as the jurisdiction of the court, the rejection of a criminal complaint and a criminal delay prosecution of legal persons according to the principle of opportunity, as well as determining people’s legal representatives and their properties, relationship between defense counsel and representatives, the contents of the indictment and the judgment of the trial and the specific precautions.