A comparative account of criminal investigations on corporate liability: unraveling procedural safeguards granted to corporations in Italy and in the United States

The thesis represents a comparative analysis between the legal systems of the United States and of Italy. Its perspective focuses on procedural safeguards granted to accused corporations under a criminal investigations for corporate liability cases. Its aim is to compare the two systems in detail, through a point-by-point comparison. It proceeds in concentric circles from a general macro-comparison to a specific micro-comparison analysis. Part I presents the legal systems of the two countries as to criminal justice and corporate criminal liability. In Part II analyses how corporate liability for crimes is ascertained by criminal courts through the timeline of preliminary investigations, with a focus on prosecutorial discretion. Part III covers the principles of the right to an effective defense and the presumption of innocence as applied to corporations. Among the main conclusions to the investigation, some main analogies and differences have been drawn between the two systems: the presumption of innocence, to be juxtaposed to the role of cooperative behaviors; the right to trial as opposed to the abuse of trial-avoiding mechanisms, impacting even on the defense rights. We conclude that most of the procedural safeguards granted to a criminal defendant may also be applied to corporations, with some exceptions; but, also, that, in most cases, these accused are often induced to forsake some rights for a more lenient treatment. This might at first glance appear a violation of the corporation’s rights and perhaps even of constitutional norms. However, in a realistic and critical perspective, this deviation from ordinary canons of protection of the accused in a criminal trial may be justified by the abstract structure of the corporation.