DREPTUL LA TĂCERE ÎN CAZUL PERSOANEI JURIDICE

Although the right to remain silent and to not incriminate oneself is apparently an important component of the right to a fair trial, neither the ECHR nor the CFREU contain certain provisions on its consecration. If this right is expressly recognized by the vast majority of modern criminal procedural laws regarding the natural person, the same did not happen in relation to the legal person, to whom this procedural right was recognized more by jurisprudence. An incursion into the jurisprudence of the ECtHR and the CJEU, although sometimes enlightening, is not edifying in trying to clarify whether the framework for the application of the right to remain silent in the case of a natural person is the same as the framework for the application of a legal person, or the latter enjoys less protection in this regard. This study seeks to demonstrate that the right to remain silent in the case of a legal person is a matter far from being clarified, given that Directive (EU) 2016/343 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 March 2016 on strengthening certain aspects of the presumption of innocence and the right to be present at trial in criminal proceedings has expressly excluded legal persons from its scope.