ABSTRACT
Under the ‘Second Protocol to the Convention on the Protection of the European Communities’ Financial Interests’, Austria had been obliged to establish ‘effective, propor tionate and dissuasive sanctions’ against corporations which commit offences.1 Having been granted a transitional period of five years, Austria had to comply with this obligation by 19 June 2002. It was nonetheless one of the last member states to fulfil the requirements. It was only on 1 January 2006 that a new ‘Act on the Liability of Corporations for Criminal Offences’2 (Corporate Liability Act; CLA) entered into force in Austria. Like any indivi dual perpetrator, corporations can now be prosecuted and convicted, i.e. held criminally responsible for various offences. The CLA consists of 30 articles which determine the substantive responsibility of corporations as well as sanctions (§§ 1-12), special provisions on criminal procedure (§§ 13-27) and concluding formal provisions (§§ 28-30). Thus the CLA complements the already existing codes of criminal law and criminal procedure3 which now apply also to corporations unless their scope is restricted exclusively to natural persons (§ 12 sect CLA).
