BOOK I
General provisions on felonies and misdemeanours, the persons responsible, the penalties, security measures and other consequences of criminal offences
TITLE II
On persons criminally responsible for felonies and misdemeanours
Article 27
Those criminally responsible for felonies and misdemeanours are the principals and their accessories.
Article 28
Principals are those who perpetrate the act themselves, alone, jointly, or by means of another used to aid and abet. The following shall also be deemed principals :
a) Whoever directly induces another or others to commit a crime ;
b) Whoever co-operates in the commission thereof by an act without which a crime could not have been committed.
Article 29
Accessories are those who, not being included in the preceding Article, co-operate in carrying out the offence with prior or simultaneous acts.
Article 30
1. In felonies and misdemeanours that are committed using media or supports of mechanical diffusion, neither the accessories, nor those who have personally or actually favoured these shall be held criminally accountable.
2. The principals to which Article 28 refers shall be held accountable in a progressive, excluding and subsidiary manner, in the following order :
1º. Those who materially drafted the text or produced the sign concerned, and those who induced others to perpetrate the act ;
2º. The directors of the publication or programme in which it is disseminated ;
3º. The directors of the printing, broadcasting or distribution company ;
4º. The directors of the recording, playing or printing company ;
3. When, for any reason other than extinction of criminal accountability, or for declaration of contempt of court or not residing in Spain, any of the persons included in any of the Sub-Sections of the preceding Section may be prosecuted, proceedings shall be taken against those mentioned in the Sub-Section immediately following.
Article 31
1. Whoever acts as de facto or de jure administrator of a legal person, or on behalf or in legal or voluntary representation of another, shall be held personally accountable, even though he does not fulfil the conditions, qualities or relationship that the relevant definition of felony or misdemeanour requires to be an active subject thereof, if such circumstances concur in the entity or person in whose name or on behalf of whom he so acts.
2. (Suppressed)
Article 31 bis
1. In the cases foreseen in this Code, legal persons shall be held criminally accountable for the felonies committed in their name or on their behalf, and to their benefit, by their legal representatives and de facto or de jure administrators.
In the same cases, legal persons shall also be criminally accountable for the felonies committed when perpetrating the corporate activities and on account and to the advantage thereof, who, these being committed by the natural persons mentioned in the preceding Section, were able to perpetrate the acts as due control was not exercised over them in view of the specific circumstances of the case.
2. The criminal accountability of legal persons shall be applicable whenever there is record of a felony being committed that must have been committed by the person who holds office or perpetrates the duties referred to in the preceding Section, even when the specific natural person responsible has not been individually identified, or it has not been possible to prosecute that person. When fines are handed down to both as a consequence of these acts, the Judges or Courts of Law shall modulate the respective amounts, so the resulting sum is not disproportionate in relation to the seriousness of such acts.
3. Concurrence, in the persons who have materially perpetrated the acts or those who have made these possible due to not having exercised due control, of circumstances that affect the culpability of the accused or aggravate his responsibility, or the fact that those persons have died or have escaped the action of justice, shall not exclude or modify the criminal accountability of legal persons, without prejudice to what is set forth in the following Section.
4. Circumstances that mitigate criminal accountability of legal persons may only de deemed to concur when, after the felony is committed, they have carried out the following activities through their legal representatives :
a) Having proceeded, prior to having knowledge of judicial proceedings being brought against them, to confess the felonies committed by them to the authorities ;
b) Having collaborated in investigation of the events, providing evidence, at any moment of the proceedings, that are new and decisive to clarify the criminal liabilities arising from the events ;
c) Having proceeded at any time during the proceedings, and prior to the trial itself, to repair or decrease the damage caused by the felony ;
d) Having established, prior to the trial itself, measures that are effective to prevent and discover felonies that might be committed in the future using the means or under the coverage of the legal person.
5. The provisions related to criminal accountability of legal persons shall not be applicable to the State, to the territorial and institutional Public Administrations, to the Regulatory Bodies, the Public Agencies and Corporate Entities, to political parties and Trade Unions, to organisations under Public International Law, or to others that exercise public powers of sovereignty, administration, or in the case of State Mercantile Companies that implement public policies or provide services of general economic interest.
In these cases, the jurisdictional bodies may effect declaration of criminal accountability in the case of these noting that it is a law-based scheme created by the promoters, founders, administrators or representatives in order to avoid eventual criminal accountability.
Individual criminal responsibility
EDIT.