Comparative study of criminal liability of legal entities in Iranian, French and English law with reference to international conventions

Abstract

The expansion of the activities of companies and legal entities in complex contemporary economic and commercial structures has led to an increase in their role in committing or facilitating organized, environmental, financial and administrative corruption crimes; crimes that, due to their collective, organized and transnational nature, have profound and widespread consequences on public order, criminal justice, human rights, the environment and public trust. In such a situation, the traditional focus of criminal law on the responsibility of natural persons has lost the necessary effectiveness in combating organizational and structural crime, and the need to identify and strengthen the criminal accountability of companies as the main actors of the modern economy has become one of the fundamental demands of domestic and international legal systems. The present study, with a descriptive-analytical and comparative approach, examines the theoretical foundations, conditions of realization and methods of attributing criminal liability to legal entities in the laws of Iran, France and England and analyzes this issue in the light of international documents and conventions related to the fight against organized crime, administrative corruption, economic crimes and environmental violations. The comparative study shows that the legal systems of France and England, by moving beyond the classical individual-oriented model and accepting concepts such as organizational fault, institutional culture, failure in supervision and management and structural liability, have been able to design more efficient frameworks for holding companies accountable for serious and high-risk crimes. In contrast, Iranian criminal law, despite accepting the principle of criminal liability of legal entities, still faces challenges such as lack of coherence of theoretical foundations, limitations in identifying organizational fault and ambiguity in the efficiency and proportionality of criminal enforcement guarantees. The research findings show that strengthening the criminal accountability of companies is not only an effective tool for combating organized, financial, environmental and administrative corruption crimes, but also plays a fundamental role in structural prevention of crime, promoting transparency and corporate governance, and ensuring criminal justice at the national and international levels. Accordingly, by presenting comparative models, the research emphasizes the necessity of reforming and completing the criminal liability system of legal entities in Iranian law, in line with the requirements of contemporary criminal justice and international obligations.