Compliance

Zusammenfassung

I. Grundsatz des „respondeat superior“. Während in den meisten europäischen Rechtsordnungen die strafrechtliche Verantwortlichkeit von Gesellschaften („Corporate Criminal Responsibility“ bzw. „Liability“) nicht anerkannt wird, haben US-amerikanische Gerichte bereits zu Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts Kapitalgesellschaften („Corporations“) für die kriminellen Handlungen ihrer Angestellten strafrechtlich haftbar gemacht, vgl. U.S. Supreme Court, New York Central & Hudson River Railroad Co. v. United States, 212 U.S. 481, 495 f. (1909): „We see no valid objection in law, and every reason in public policy, why the corporation, which profits by the transaction, and can only act through its agents and officers, shall be held punishable by fine because of the knowledge and intent of its agents to whom it has intrusted authority to act in the subject-matter of making and fixing rates of transportation, and whose knowledge and purposes may well be attributed to the corporation for which the agents act. While the law should have regard to the rights of all, and to those of corporations not less than to those of individuals, it cannot shut its eyes to the fact that the great majority of business transactions in modern times are conducted through theses bodies and particularly that interstate commerce is almost entirely in their hands, and to give them immunity from all punishment because of the old and exploded doctrine that a corporation cannot commit a crime would virtually take away the only means of effectually controlling the subject-matter and correcting the abuses aimed at.“