Towards a New Paradigm for Corporate Criminal Liability in Brazil: Lessons from Common Law Developments

While in several jurisdictions corporate criminal liability is accepted, in Brazil the maxim still prevails that corporations cannot commit crimes. In common law countries the attribution of criminal liability to corporations was developed more than a century ago, and the concept of corporate criminal liability has been extensively discussed. This work is an attempt to look into the common law experience and to offer a plausible basis for the introduction of corporate criminal liability in Brazil. The research is essentially theoretical; it is mostly based on relevant literature from Britain, Canada and United States, three exponents of common law jurisdictions, and on relevant literature from Brazil.