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Economic and Business Crimes Law

Code: 102247 ECTS Credits: 6
2024/2025
Degree Type Year
2500786 Law OT 4

Contact

Name:
Maria Jose Rodriguez Puerta
Email:
mariajose.rodriguez.puerta@uab.cat

Teaching groups languages

You can view this information at the end of this document.


Prerequisites

In order to understand and follow up this optional subject, it is highly recommended that the student has passed the core subjects of Criminal Law (Criminal Law I, II and III). Although not essential, it will also help you to better understand how to take the optional course "Criminal trials" at the same time.

The teaching of the subject will be carried out taking into account the objectives of sustainable development. 


Objectives and Contextualisation

- Knowing essential features of white-collar crime and its business environment 
 
- Knowing legal implications of these kind of criminal offenses.
 
- Develop proper skills for legal analysis and interpretation of white collar-crimes.
 
- Knowing how white-collar crime criminal regulation interacts with other legal fields 
 
- Understand the existence and perpetration of white-collar crimes as a criminal phenomenon and be able to develop a critical thinking of this topic.
Identify and apply the elements of this criminal offenses and be able to determinate its penalty.

Competences

  • Acquiring the basic knowledge from the several legal dogmas and presenting them in public.
  • Arguing and laying the foundation for the implementation of legal standards.
  • Drawing up legal texts (contracts, judgements, sentences, writs, rulings, wills, legislation...).
  • Identifying and solving problems.
  • Identifying the underlying conflicts of interest in disputes and real cases.
  • Identifying, assessing and putting into practice changes in jurisprudence.
  • Identifying, knowing and applying the basic and general principles of the legal system.
  • Managing bibliographic and documentary resources: databases, browsing, etc.
  • Mastering the computing techniques when it comes to obtaining legal information (legislation databases, jurisprudence, bibliography...) and in data communication.
  • Memorising and utilising legal terminology.
  • Planning and organising: managing of time, resources, etc.
  • Present information in a way that is appropriate to the type of audience.
  • Presenting in front of an audience the problems of a concrete law suit, the applicable legal regulations, and the most consistent solutions.
  • Searching, interpreting and applying legal standards, arguing every case.
  • Students must be capable of demonstrating a critical awareness of the analysis of the legal system and development of legal dialectics.
  • Students must be capable of demonstrating the unitary nature of the legal system and of the necessary interdisciplinary view of legal problems.
  • Students must be capable of learning autonomously and having an entrepreneurial spirit.
  • Students must be capable of making decisions.
  • Students must be capable of perceiving the impact and implications of the decisions taken.
  • Students must prove they know and comprehend the main public and private institutions in its genesis and as a whole.
  • Use different information and communication technologies.
  • Using the main constitutional principles and values as a working tool in the interpretation of the legal system.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Acquiring the basic knowledge of criminal law.
  2. Arguing the implementation of criminal laws in the resolution of criminal problems.
  3. Becoming aware of the importance of the ethical commitment of the lawyer in the criminal proceeding.
  4. Defining defence strategies of the criminal legal interests.
  5. Defining the link between the criminal law and the constitutional principles and values.
  6. Defining the main criminal institutions.
  7. Distinguishing the dependence and autonomy relations between criminal law and the rest of branches of the legal system (civil, labour, administration, finances).
  8. Distinguishing the important connexion between the substantive criminal law and the procedural criminal law.
  9. Drawing up documents of specific criminal content linked to the process, fundamentally of provisional conclusions, appeals, and sentences.
  10. Drawing up resolutions of criminal cases.
  11. Finding the applicable legislation between the criminal code and special criminal laws.
  12. Identifying and assessing the jurisprudence of Provincial Courts and the Supreme Court in criminal matters.
  13. Identifying and knowing the limiting principles of labour law.
  14. Identifying and solving problems.
  15. Identifying the conflicts of interest underlying in a concrete criminal law suit.
  16. Identifying the conflicts of interest underlying in a general criminal law suit.
  17. Identifying, knowing and applying the interpretative principles of criminal law.
  18. Interpreting the criminal laws as criminal policy decisions.
  19. Introducing in the classroom the defence or accusation of criminal cases.
  20. Laying the foundation for the implementation of criminal laws in the resolution of criminal problems.
  21. Managing bibliographic and documentary resources: databases, browsing, etc.
  22. Memorising and using the criminal specific terminology.
  23. Planning and organising: managing of time, resources, etc.
  24. Present information in a way that is appropriate to the type of audience.
  25. Searching criminal sentences in databases.
  26. Solving interpretation and application problems of criminal laws.
  27. Students must be capable of learning autonomously and having an entrepreneurial spirit.
  28. Students must be capable of making decisions.
  29. Students must be capable of perceiving the impact and implications of the decisions taken.
  30. Use different information and communication technologies.
  31. Using the arguments of criminal and constitutional jurisprudence for the resolution of criminal problems.
  32. Using the main constitutional principles and values as a working tool in the interpretation of the legal system.
  33. Verbally explaining the resolution of problems related to criminal laws.

Content

1: INTRODUCTION TO ECONOMIC CRIMINAL LAW. 1. The emergence of "crimes against the socio-economic order" in the Criminal Code of 1995: background, scope of extension and controversy over their incrimination. 2. Basis, concept and purpose of economic criminal law. Sources of economic criminal law. The principle of ultima ratio and the necessary subsidiarity of economic criminal law. The ne bis in idem principle.

2. GENERAL ISSUES APPLIED TO THE ECONOMIC AND BUSINESS FIELD. 1. Dangerous crimes. 2. Blank criminal law regulations. 3. The objective imputation and the question of the permitted risk. 4. Omission. 5. Perpetration and participation in special offences and collegiate bodies. 6. Criminal liability of legal persons. 7. The error in economic criminal law.

3. BRIEF REFERENCE TO SOME BASIC PATRIMONIAL OFFENCES. 1. the scam. 2. Misappropriation. 3. Features common to both offences. 4. Delimitation in respect of other forms of crime.

4. PUNISHABLE INSOLVENCIES. Assets lifting and contests.

5. DOCUMENTAL FALSE. 1. Protected legal property. Classes of falsehood: material falsehood and ideological falsehood. New false modalities introduced in LO 5/2010: a) The use or trafficking of false identity documents, b) the trafficking of false certificates, c) the counterfeiting of credit, debit and traveller's cheques. 4. Bankruptcy problems: the difficult distinction between legal and criminal competition and the need to respect the principle of ne bis in idem.

6. CORPORATE CRIMES. 1. General questions: a) the concept of society, b) the conditions of persecution. 2. Unfair administration. Delimitation with the crime of misappropriation. 3. False accounting. 4. Obstruction of the inspecting or supervising action of the Administration.

7. CRIMES RELATING TO THE MARKET AND CONSUMERS. 1. Power of attorney and disclosure of company secrets. Delimitation with respect to crimes against privacy. 2. New forms of crime: (a) so-called'investment fraud', (b) corruption between private individuals.

8. CRIMES RELATING TO INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY. 1. the protected legal property. 2. Elements of the basic type. 3. The specific types. 4. Qualified types.

9. CAPITAL LAUNDERING OFFENCES, CRIMES AGAINST PUBLIC FINANCES AND AGAINST SOCIAL SECURITY. 1. the crime of money laundering. 2. The crime of tax fraud. 3. The crime of social security fraud. 4. The offence of subsidy fraud. 5. Community fraud offences. 6. The tax accounting offence.

10. CRIMES OF EMBEZZLEMENT, INFLUENCE PEDDLING AND BRIBERY.

11. CRIMES RELATING TO TERRITORIAL PLANNING, URBAN PLANNING AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION. 1. Urban planning crime. 2. Ecological offences.

 


Activities and Methodology

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Practical classes 22 0.88 2, 25, 4, 8, 33, 20, 21, 15, 12, 17, 22, 19, 9, 10, 26, 29, 28, 11, 30, 31, 32
Theorical classes 22 0.88 1, 5, 6, 8, 7, 20, 16, 13, 17, 18, 22, 30, 32
Type: Autonomous      
Bibliography an?lisis, debate, study of jurisprudence 104 4.16 1, 2, 25, 4, 5, 6, 8, 7, 33, 20, 21, 15, 16, 13, 12, 17, 18, 22, 3, 19, 9, 10, 26, 29, 28, 11, 30, 31, 32 

The learning process is based on the work of the student who learns by working, being the teacher's mission to help him in this work by supplying the information and showing the sources where it can be obtained.
										
											 
										
											The development of the teaching of the subject and the training of the student is based on the following activities:
										
											 
										
											1. Directed activities
										
											 
										
											1.1. Lectures: where the student assumes the conceptual bases of the subject and its normative and jurisprudential framework. Lectures are activities that require less interactivity with the student and are conceived as a fundamentally unidirectional method of transmitting knowledge from the teacher to the student.
										
											1.2. Practical classes: where the student analyzes and solves previously elaborated practical cases together with the teacher. The basis of the practical work is the understanding and critical application of the regulations and jurisprudence related to the essential content explained in the theoretical classes. These are activities that students develop in the classroom, with the supervision and support of the teacher. It is about the resolution of some practical case in the classroom, study and discussion of legal texts.
										
											 
										
											2. Autonomous activities.
										
											The student will have to dedicate most of the time of the subject to work the content of the same with the manuals and reference materials, to read complementary bibliography, to elaborate concept maps, to write the practical activities and to study the final exam.

Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.


Assessment

Continous Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
mock trial 10% 0 0 1, 5, 7, 21, 24, 27
practical activities 40% 0 0 1, 2, 25, 4, 5, 8, 7, 33, 20, 21, 15, 16, 12, 17, 18, 23, 3, 19, 14, 9, 10, 26, 27, 29, 28, 11, 30, 31, 32
theoretical exam 50% 2 0.08 1, 5, 6, 7, 13, 17, 22, 29, 28

1. Continuous assessment
 
Evaluating system is based in a continuous assessment of the student with the goal of knowing the level of knowledge. Continuous evaluation is mandatory in order to pass the course. The final evaluation consists of the two following parts:
 
A final examination, test, that has an overall value of 50% of final grade. Those students who do not pass this exam will have a re-evaluation although this suppose losing continuous evaluation grade. In this case the final exam will have 100% overall value of final grade.  IN ORDER TO BE ABLE TO EVALUATE THIS ACTIVITY, THE STUDENT MUST OBTAIN A GRADE OF 4 OR MORE ON THE EXAM. If the indicated grade is not obtained, the final grade will not be made with the rest of the activity and, therefore, the student will have to pass the re-evaluation exam. 
 
An evaluations of resolution of two practical cases. Value of 40% of final grade. If the student do not pass one of the practical cases it will have a re-evaluation study case.
 
Preparation and oral presentation of a case, mock trial, which makes up 10% of the final grade.
 
Clarifications regarding the practical activity: 
 
- The student must present two cases-study and as well as read the book and its subsequent oral presentation. If the student does not submit or solve any of the practical exercises, he/she will fail the course.
 
- For the final exam grade of the course, which makes up 50% of the final grade, the active participation of the student in the classroom will be taken into account
  
IF THE STUDENT HAS NOT TAKEN THE CONTINUED ASSESSMENT OR HAS NOT COMPLETED IT, IT WILL NOT BE ABLE TO TAKE THE FINAL EXAM OR THE RE- EVALUATION EXAM.
 
Students will be assessableas long as they have carried out a set of activities, the weight of which is equivalent to a minimum of 2/3 of the total grade for the subject. If the value of the activities carried out does not meet this requirement, the mark will be that of not assessable.
 
At the beginning of the course theteacher in charge of each group will inform the students, through the moodle classroom, of the content and dates of the continuous evaluation activities, as well as the final exam model.
 
 2. Single assessment

Students who opt for the single evaluation will be evaluated on the basis of 3 activities to be carried out in 3 hours on the same day scheduled for the final exam:

  • A multiple-choice test, the same as students who opt for the continuous evaluation (50% of the final mark). 1 h
  • The resolution of cases (50% of the final mark). 2 h

As all students, also students who opt for the single evaluation model will have right to teachers’ attention and support throughout the semester, according to the tutorial schedule.

 
3. Re-evaluation: 
 
Regarding final exam grade: if the student have done continuous or single assessment but fail to pass final exam, it will have to attend to the re-evaluation exam. In this case, the student will keep continuous evaluation grade (or cases in the single assessment). The re-evaluation will take place under the same conditions and on the date set by the Academic Management.
 

- If you choose to re-evaluate the exam, the final grade will be that of the re-evaluation, even if it is worse than the one initially obtained.

- It will not be necessary to obtain a minimum grade to carry out the re-evaluation.

- The reassessment of the practical activities may be used as a means to raise the grade. However, only one practical case can be recovered and the student will keep the recovery mark, even if it were lower than the one obtained from the continuous evaluation.

Overall grade of the subject: the final grade will be the sum ofall the activities evaluated. In order to pass the course, a minimum score of 5 points must be obtained.
Review: When the notes are published, the date and place of review of the activities will be specified.
 
 
WARNING: Students who copy or attempt to copy on a final exam will receive a 0 on the exam. The student who presents a practice in which there is plagiarism will get a 0 and will receive a warning. In case of repetition of the behavior, the student will be suspended from the course.

Bibliography

-          MARTÍNEZ-BUJÁN PÉREZ, Carlos.: Derecho penal económico y de la empresa: parte general. Tirant lo Blanch, Valencia, 2016.

-          MARTÍNEZ-BUJÁN PÉREZ, Carlos. Derecho penal económico y de la empresa: parte especial. Tirant lo blanch, Valencia, 2019.

-          NIETO MARTÍN, Adán., “Introducción al Derecho Penal Económico y de la Empresa”, en Nieto Martín, A., Lascuraín Sáncezh, J. A., Dopico Gómez-Aller, J., De la Mata Barranco, N. J.,: Derecho Penal económico y de la empresa, E. Dykinson, Madrid, 2018. (MANUAL EN ABIERTO Y DESCARGABLE EN: https://e-archivo.uc3m.es/handle/10016/26715).

-          GALÁN MUÑOZ, Alfonso., NÚÑEZ CASTAÑO, Elena., (Aut.): Manual de Derecho Penal económico y de la empresa, Ed. Tirant lo Blanch, Valencia, 2019.

-          CORCOY BIDASOLO, Mirentxu., GÓMEZ MARTÍN, Víctor., (Dirs.): Manual de Derecho Penal, económico y de empresa. Parte general y parte especial, Ed. Tirant lo Blanch, Tomo 2, Valencia, 2016.

-          CAMACHO VIZCAÍNO, Antonio., (Dir.): Tratado de Derecho Penal Económico, Ed. Tirant lo Blanch, Valencia, 2019.


Software

The subjec does not require any specific software.

 


Language list

Name Group Language Semester Turn
(PAUL) Classroom practices 51 Spanish second semester afternoon
(TE) Theory 51 Spanish second semester afternoon