"Declarative" guilt and actual objective imputation: prospects for the introduction of the institution of criminal liability of legal entities

Introduction: the author touches upon the criminalization of the criminal liability of legal entities in the national criminal law, taking into account the influence on this process of the principle of guilt, enshrined in Article 5 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The assessment of the prospects for the formation of the designated concept was carried out in a systematic connection with administrative regulation, where guilt as a necessary sign of the composition of the offense is subject to establishment without exception and in relation to a legal entity. Materials and Methods: both general scientific methods of analysis, synthesis, induction and specific scientific methods, legal, comparative-legal were used in the course of the study. regulatory acts, including international ones, current judicial practice of national courts, scientific works were the basis for the study. Results: it has been established that de facto objective imputation takes place not only in law enforcement practice, but also in legislative change, despite the principle of fault liability. This confirms prerequisites for the introduction of criminal liability of legal entities, however, along with theoretical validity, a correct legislative structure is required, taking into account the experience of previous initiatives that have not found support from the legislative body to date. Discussion and Conclusions: the author justifies the need to introduce criminal liability of legal persons, which casts doubt on the key argument of the opponents of this idea of the inviolability of the principle of guilt. It is proposed to the federal legislator to develop an appropriate draft law with elaboration of regulatory criteria for establishing the guilt of legal entities without excluding consideration of the behavior of persons authorized to act on behalf of and in the interests of the organization.