Sistema de responsabilidad penal de la persona jurídica en Ecuador

Abstract

The criminal liability system of legal persons in Ecuador, states a before and after within the local criminal legal debate. It is not a mere societas delinquere potest, nor is it just a societas puniri potest; it is actually that, as of 2014 in this country, legal persons may be subject to criminal liability, with all the legal consequences that this implies. Then, in procedural matters, in case of concurring the requirements of article 49 of the Organic Integral Criminal Code are considered a passive subject of the criminal process, and in that condition the entire procedural guarantee, system must be observed in their favour, thus by considering their nature as a non-human entity. On the other hand, in vicarious criminal liability or self-responsibility systems, criminal compliance cannot be left out of consideration; however, the Ecuadorian legislator with regards to the first regulation of this kind of responsibility, expressly omits to incorporate them, by complicating the local debate regarding the imputation model; afterwards, through reform, they are regulated only in their mitigating effects. As it is something innovative within the criminal jurisdiction, the practice of this type of responsibility requires great care and reflection.