The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002: A German Perspective

1. Within Europe, the traditional concept of crime being flawed, individual conduct dominated. The concept of deterrence, achieved through the threat of punishment, and the related concept of personal culpability, made the representatives of a corporate entity in which a crime had been committed criminally liable insofar as they either participated in the causal act through their own doing or did not prevent it even though their position within the entity meant that they had a duty to act. Hence, in many cases in which an act of the representative could not be proved, the crime of omission became the most important instrument of criminal justice. In particular the principals