Article 31 bis of the Criminal Code
TÍTULO II — De las personas criminalmente responsables de los delitos
Previous versions
History of reforms to this article, from oldest to most recent, as recorded in the BOE’s consolidated legislation.
In force from 23/12/2010 to 16/01/2013
In force from 17/01/2013 to 30/06/2015
Explanation and defense
What Article 31 bis of the Criminal Code governs
Article 31 bis establishes the criminal liability of legal persons. A company may be criminally liable for offences committed, in its name and for its direct or indirect benefit, by its legal representatives or by those authorised to make decisions or holding powers of organisation and control; and also for offences committed by employees under its authority where the duties of supervision, oversight and control were seriously breached.
The compliance-programme exemption
The provision allows the legal person to be exempt from liability if it proves that, before the offence was committed, it had effectively adopted and implemented an organisation and management model suitable for preventing offences of that nature. The text requires that model to identify risk activities, set out decision-making protocols, provide a financial-resource management model, impose a duty to report risks and breaches to a control body with autonomous powers, establish a disciplinary system, and be periodically reviewed. In small companies, that supervision may be assumed directly by the management body.
Defense strategy
The defense of the legal person turns on the real effectiveness of the compliance programme, not its mere formal existence: showing that the model was in place, properly resourced and actually applied, and that the individual offender fraudulently circumvented it, allows the company to invoke the exemption or, where it can only be partly proven, the mitigation of penalty that the article itself provides.
Legislative reform discussed
Organic Law 1/2015, of March 30, modifying the Criminal Code
See the summary of this reform, the Criminal Code articles affected and the BOE link on our criminal-law reforms page.
history_eduView the reform· BOE-A-2015-3439arrow_forwardQuick reference
Orientative data computed from the highest prison term mentioned in this article. Aggravated or mitigated subtypes, non-custodial penalties and concurrence rules may alter the outcome in each specific case.