Abstract

PRADILLO, Juan Carlos Ortiz. THE RECEPTION OF THE COMPLIANCE AND WHISTLEBLOWING CULTURE IN SPAIN. Revista Internacional CONSINTER de Direito [online]. 2020, n.11, pp.421-450.  Epub Dec 18, 2020. ISSN 2183-6396.  https://doi.org/10.19135/revista.consinter.00011.20.

The way that the Spanish legislature regulated the criminal liability of legal persons wanted to promote a culture of regulatory compliance and preventing the commission of crimes and misdemeanors in the business field, but also the company's cooperation with state authorities when it is investigated in a criminal proceeding. To this end, the so-called ‘Compliance culture’ has focused on the legal entity -public or private- and its appropriate criminal prevention model.

But it is also relevant to attend to the other subjects involved in this criminal compliance: employees and other people who collaborate with the company or with the state authorities themselves by providing essential information on the wrongdoings and their perpetrators. It is the culture of Whistleblowing, characterized by the establishment of confidential and secure reporting channels and by the articulation of special measures to protect such subjects against the retaliation that they may suffer in connection with such collaboration.

This study focuses on in-depth review of national backgrounds in this area, as well as the new legislative framework from the European Union -Directive (EU) 2019/193 - to provide legislative changes that provide legal certainty, legal assistance and effective protection for whistleblowers of corruption, fraud and bad practice, both in the private and public sectors.

Keywords : Compliance; Whistleblowing; Legal persons; Fraud; Public interest..

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