La Convención de Palermo (UNTOC) y la responsabilidad derivada de delitos de las personas jurídicas: itinerarios e intersecciones del ordenamiento italiano

Both the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organised Crime (UNTOC: signed in December 2000 in Palermo) and the Delegation Law no. 300/2000, with its corresponding Legislative Decree no. 231/2001, which jointly introduced in Italy the liability arising from crime for collective entities, mark two "paradigm shifts" for the criminal system. The contribution focuses on the overall value of the two legislative innovations examined in the evolution of criminal law, respectively at the international level and in the Italian context. The interest in analysing their respective contributions is further stimulated by the observation that the two areas, although autonomous, present a significant intersection, where the UNTOC Convention requires the introduction of the liability of legal persons for the offences foreseen therein. Starting with a review of the meaning and trajectory of the Convention, the following is a reminder of its express reference to the liability of legal persons for the offences foreseen in it, to then verify the terms in which the Convention's provision on the matter has been implemented in Italian law, becoming part of the general discipline on the liability of entities introduced here and almost contemporaneous with the aforementioned international text. In particular, the text stresses, with regard to criminal companies-organisations or, at least, those that are merely a screen for illicit activities, the substantially alien nature of the co-operative logic linked to the adoption of organisational and management models. Furthermore, the importance of the necessary coordination with the other forms of response of the Italian legal system to the phenomenon of infiltrations in the economy of criminal organisations, especially with regard to the "parallel universe" of anti-mafia preventive measures.