'Triggering persons’: the role of the offender in ‘ex crimine’ liability of legal entities. A comparative study on Member States’ legal systems

This analysis aims at identifying the position of the subjects who might be regarded as the perpetrators of a predicate offence that can be attributed to a legal entity (so called ‘triggering persons’). My idea is to try to distinguish different member states’ legal systems on a scale drawing progressively away from ‘leading positions’, depending on the importance attached to the sole ‘top positions’ or also to the ‘subordinate positions’ or even to the unlawful types of conduct otherwise committed by a ‘third person’ external to the organization, in order to attribute liability ‘ex crimine’ to a legal entity for a predicate offence. This analysis will be developed regardless of further distinctions connected to the different framework of criminal, quasi-criminal or administrative liability of legal entities. In the light of the contact points among the legal systems of EU member states, which arise from a comparative analysis, we shall also be able to draw common lines to develop this specific aspect of discipline. The goal is to propose a common regulation which may allow for the approximation and harmonization of member states’ legal systems in accordance with the fundamental ‘principle of personality’ of corporate criminal liability, even under the specific charging criterion connected to the ‘triggering person’