Does Germany Need a New Corporate Sanctioning Act?

As a response to politicians and others who claim the current German framework for sanctioning corporate misconduct is inadequate, the Federal Ministry of Justice presented a draft of an associated sanctions law in summer 2019 to combat white-collar crime. This article discusses the intended changes and identifies some problems that could be better solved in practice.

After presenting the arguments for new corporate sanctioning, Dr. Jungermann concludes that there is no legally binding necessity for this, and further notes that a new white-collar crime law will not satisfy the need for the current sanctioning mechanism to be improved. The accusation that the criminal law de lege lata does not have sufficient preventive effect and that companies can take calculable risks does not seem to be right, he adds, since the current costs for internal investigations, fines and civil law consequences are very high and represent large burdens and risks. Ultimately, all it needs is a system with sufficient resources at the level of the public prosecutor and the courts.

» Read the article (PDF).