Corporate criminal liability on environmental crimes in Vietnam

Abstract

From 00:00 on January 1, 2018, all environmental criminal acts of commercial entities are prosecuted for criminal liability. In order to investigate criminal liability for corporate legal entities, up to now, Vietnam have Criminal Code 2015, Criminal Procedure Code 2015 and Law on Execution of Criminal Judgment 2019. However, the competences, order and procedures of judgment excution for corporate legal entities that environmental commit crimes are still controversial and has been urgently discussed. The Penal Code 2015 on corporate legal entities has been in effect for nearly 5 years, but in fact up to July 2020, there has not been a commercial entity prosecuted and tried or excuted yet. The difficult problem is the penalties applied to legal entities different in the nature, order, procedures and ways of conducting compared with individual. This paper introducing the new regulations about the criminal liability on corporate entities for environmental crimes in Vietnam Criminal Code 2015 and analyze and point out some challenges, proposes some suggestions in Vietnam execution of criminal judgments.