Liability of legal entities in East Asia and Oceania
#Compliancekeys11
In this week’s #Compliancekeys11, we briefly outline the regulation of the liability of legal entities in the different countries that are part of Eastern Asia and Oceania.
As can be seen, the majority of countries in Eastern Asia and Oceania foresee the criminal liability of legal entities and only four countries (Bangladesh, India, the Philippines and Sri Lanka) foresee the administrative liability.
It should be noted that Indonesia has recently (January 2nd) passed the Law 1/2023 which introduces the criminal liability of legal entities, a factor that could encourage the others Southeastern Asia countries mentioned above, to incorporate the criminal liability of legal entities.
In any case, there is attached below a summary-table about the state of play:
| Country | Nature of liability | Closed or open list of offenses / infractions | Legal possibility of exemption due to the availability of Compliance |
| Australia | Criminal | Closed list | Yes |
| Bangladesh | Administrative | Closed list | No |
| Cambodia | Criminal | Closed list | Yes (only for certain specific offenses). |
| China | Criminal | Closed list | Yes (only for very specific conduct, for example, in competition terms). |
| Hong Kong | Criminal | Closed list | No |
| India | Criminal | Closed list | No (only, and not very succinctly, for corruption offenses). |
| Indonesia | Criminal (until 2022 it was Administrative) |
Open list | Yes |
| Japan | Criminal | Closed list | Yes |
| Laos | Criminal | Open list | Yes |
| Malaysia | Criminal | Closed list | Yes (only for certain specific offenses). |
| New Zealand | Criminal | Closed list | Yes |
| Papua New Guinea | Criminal | Closed list | Yes |
| Philippines | Administrative | Closed list | No |
| Singapore | Criminal | Closed list | Yes |
| South Korea | Criminal | Closed list | Yes, in specific laws. |
| Sri Lanka | Administrative | Closed list | No |
| Thailand | Criminal | Closed list | No |
| Taiwan | Criminal | Closed list | Yes |
| Vietnam | Criminal | Closed list | Yes |
Compliance Department of Molins Defensa Penal.