Implementation of the Rules of the Institute of Application of Ciminal Law Measures to Legal Entities in Court Practice: Results of a 10-Year Marathon

The article analyzes both criminal and criminal procedural legislation and court practice with regard to the application of criminal law measures against legal entities. The author establishes that at the regulatory level, the objective reason for the low efficiency of the rules on the application of such measures is, first of all, the dependence established by the criminal procedure legislation of Ukraine between the procedural fate of proceedings against a legal entity and criminal proceedings against an authorized person who committed a relevant criminal offense on behalf of and/or in the interests of a legal entity. The author analyzed 6 verdicts which resolved the issue of application of criminal legal measures against legal entities. As can be seen from the above analysis, during the 10 years of the legal institution on the application of criminal legal measures against legal entities, the court practice is characterized by a progressive movement from primitive decisions on the application of criminal legal measures against legal entities in the wrong procedural order provided for by the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine to verdicts that applied such measures procedurally correctly. In our opinion, the reason for such a small number of cases of application of criminal legal measures against legal entities in Ukraine is the fact that the procedural fate of proceedings against a legal entity is completely dependent on the criminal proceedings against its authorized person, and the lack of a single structural part of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine that would regulate the procedural procedure for application of criminal legal measures against legal entities. This situation should be remedied at the regulatory level by introducing appropriate amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine. At the same time, there is a need to develop training activities for stakeholders – investigators, prosecutors, judges, lawyers - aimed at learning the procedure for applying criminal legal measures to legal entities. Key words: criminal law measures against legal entities, proceedings against a legal entity, criminal proceedings against an individual, authorized person of a legal entity, actions on behalf of and/or in the interests of a legal entity, representative of a legal entity in respect of which proceedings are being conducted, criminal offense, training of investigators, prosecutors, attorneys, judges.