Reformulating Corporate Liability for Environmental Crimes: Implications of the National Criminal Code

Corporate activities in various industrial sectors have both positive and negative impacts on the country. The positive impact of corporate industrial activities brings strengthening to national economic development. Meanwhile, negative impacts occur as a result of excessive activities of corporations in carrying out industrial activities to the occurrence of criminal offences in the field of environment. Environmental criminal offences by corporations such as pollution or destruction of the environment can be held strictly criminally liable. Law No. 32/2009 on Environmental Protection and Management (UUPPLH) has regulated corporate criminal liability, but has not comprehensively regulated the position of corporations in a criminal offence, liability and criminal sanctions given to corporations that commit criminal offences. The enactment of Law Number 1 Year 2023 as the Indonesian National Criminal Code brings a new paradigm in recognising corporations as subjects of criminal offences and establishing more comprehensive criminal liability. This research aims to assess the effectiveness of UUPPLH in practice and examine the urgency of reformulating the provisions of UUPPLH based on the National Criminal Code. Through normative legal research, this study concludes that the reformulation of UUPPLH is urgently needed to be in line with the National Criminal Code in order to strengthen the effectiveness of law enforcement of environmental crimes and ensure that corporations can be held criminally liable fairly and proportionally.