Compliance programmes versus criminal law principles. An impossible mission

Abstract

This paper presents the reasons for thinking that compliance programs break some of the guiding principles of ius puniendi. Paradoxically, this bankruptcy does not go in the sense of allowing the ius puniendi to overflow, but in the sense of delegitimizing the punitive action of the State. First, compliance programs violate the principle of legality, whether a model of self-responsibility or hetero-responsibility of legal persons is defended. Second, they call into question the principle of effectiveness of the penal norm, in as much as the possibilities of its application are conditioned to the regulatory self-management of the recipients of the former. Third, the use of compliance programs as an element of the criminal liability of legal persons means avoiding the principle of harmfulness or exclusive protection of legal assets, particularly from a self-responsibility model.