Corporate Victims in European Union Law: The 'Sound of Silence'

While representing an unprecedented achievement in the protection of victims of crime at the European Union level, Directive 2012/29 keeps silent on the specific protection of corporate victims, and so does the regulation on corporate infringements in the EU sectoral legislations of environmental protection, food and medical safety. From such a challenging premise the analysis moves beyond the lack of an ad hoc status for the corporate victim in EU law and demonstrates that there is, on the contrary, an intensified attention toward fundamental interests of vulnerable individuals affected by corporate misconduct. The impression of a silent legal framework is, hence, progressively replaced by a complex and diversified picture, articulated, across the three examined sectors, in different liability schemes for both legal and natural persons, as well as criminal and non-criminal provisions, which allow the analysis shedding light on the potentials and limits of protecting corporate victims in EU law.