公司犯罪追诉的新路径:以美国暂缓起诉协议为中心

A Novel Way of Corporate Criminal Prosecution:Focusing on Deferred Prosecution Agreements in the United States

企业犯罪执法面临着信息和资源短缺、难以认定个人责任、对企业定罪可能引发外部连锁效应等困境。美国公司犯罪执法实践表明,通过设置适当的适用条件、责任和激励机制,检察官可以利用暂缓起诉协议激励公司参与执法合作,实现对责任人的有效制裁,改革企业内控和合规机制,降低刑事指控的附带危害。在我国现阶段刑事司法结构尚待发展的背景下,引入规避司法审判、大幅扩张检察院裁量权的暂缓起诉协议不具有现实性和正当性。另一方面,暂缓起诉协议为单位犯罪刑事追诉制度的发展提供了有益启示。具体而言,应当创新量刑考量因素、完善单位犯罪构成制度和刑事责任形式,以刑事追诉激励企业主动披露犯罪事实、协助追究个人责任、促进企业合规发展。

Corporate investigation and prosecution in China are facing similar challenges that are plaguing the U.S.prosecutors,including the low rate of detection and high enforcement costs,difficulties in holding culpable individuals accountable,as well as the undesired collateral consequences following the corporate conviction.The U.S.corporate enforcement practice in the recent decade has demonstrated the value of deferred prosecution agreements(DPAs).With appropriate preconditions,adequate corporate sanctions and incentives,DPAs can be structured in the way that enables prosecutors to leverage corporate resources and cooperation to achieve the goal of holding the culpable individuals accountable,reforming corporate internal control and compliance mechanism and restricting the collateral consequences of corporate prosecution and conviction.There is a lack of legitimacy and feasibility for importing DPAs in China that may evade the judicial review and excessively expand the prosecutorial discretion in view of the yet underdeveloped criminal justice structure in the country.On the other hand,DPAs are valuable for China in guiding the development of the criminal prosecution mechanism exclusively for the unit crimes.In specific,the reform of considerations for sentencing and corporate criminal liability and the form of corporate liability in an innovative manner is required to incentivize corporate self-disclosure,full cooperation with the enforcement agency,pursuit of individual accountability and the development of corporate compliance program.