THE CRIME OF BREACH OF DISQUALIFICATION IN BANKRUPTCY LAW: A PERSPECTIVE ON THE ATTRIBUTION OF RESULT TO LEGAL ENTITIES

Abstract

Starting from the fundamental postulate of strict penal legality, according to which there is no crime without a prior law defining it, and considering that it is the penal norm that delineates the constitutive elements of the typical figure, the question arises regarding the hermeneutical function of the factual context and the normative meaning in determining when a concrete conduct falls under the incriminating penal type. Based on this starting point, this article proposes to investigate the following problem: is it legally admissible for legal entities to engage in typical conduct and cause criminally relevant results within the scope of bankruptcy criminal law? The central objective of the research is to demonstrate that a legal entity, as an entity endowed with its own legal personality and capacity, can, through the exercise of its business activities, engage in conduct that fits the bankruptcy criminal type and produce punishable results under current penal legislation. To this end, the methodology adopted is a specialized bibliographic review, combined with the examination of a concrete case related to the crime of violation of impediment provided for in article 177 of Law No. 11.101/2005. The working hypothesis starts from the premise that a legal entity, once duly constituted, has the capacity to act in its own name and develop socially relevant conduct, including from the perspective of criminal offenses. Based on the application of the theoretical model of imputation of the result, it seeks to demonstrate that, under certain factual and legal circumstances, it is possible to attribute the commission of a bankruptcy crime to the legal entity, based on a concrete judgment of criminal liability.