CRIMINAL LIABILITY REFORM IN MEXICO
R&C: Could you provide an overview of Mexico’s corporate criminal liability reforms, introduced by the Peña Nieto administration in 2016?
Hernández: The notion of corporate criminal liability only really came into being in 2014 with the introduction of the National Criminal Proceedings Code. Previously, even though such liability existed, it was not really autonomous, given that an individual needed to be charged and found guilty before being held criminally responsible. Article 27 was added to the Mexico City Criminal Code, stating that corporations are criminally liable for actions committed by their legal representatives or administrators, or by people under the control of such representatives or administrators, if they commit a crime under the company’s aegis or for its exclusive benefit, since the company failed to exercise due control over them. Some of Mexico’s states have still not adopted laws governing corporate criminal liability, despite the inclusion of the concept in the National Criminal Proceedings Code. Article 11 was added to the Federal Criminal Code, to stipulate the crimes for which corporations can be found guilty.
Jul-Sep 2018 Issue
Zinser, Esponda y Gomez Mont, Abogados