NORWAY Law and Practice Contributed by: Elisabeth Roscher, Geir Sviggum, Tine Vigmostad and Kristin Nordland Brattli, Wikborg Rein Advokatfirma AS
Incentives , 6.3 Self-Disclosure Procedures and 7.4 Discretion for Mitigation and Aggravation ). 8.3 Compliance Monitorships Currently, the Norwegian enforcement bodies do not have the option of seeking a compliance monitor as part of corporate resolutions.
ensure an effective fight against corruption in line with Norway’s international obligations. In brief, the Høivik Evaluation provided, inter alia, the following suggestions for legislative changes: • introduce requirements regarding subjec - tive guilt (culpability) for corporate criminal liability; • clarify which connection should be required between the company and the offence(s) in order for the company to be criminally liable; • remove the discretionary nature of corporate criminal liability; • clarify that indirect corruption through the use of intermediaries is covered by the Anti-cor - ruption Provisions; • criminalise gross negligent complicity to cor - ruption; • limit the scope of the “trading in influence” to only cover influencing public decisions; • introduce regulatory requirements for pre - ventative anti-corruption work and rules specifically addressing the effect of compa - nies self-reporting and co-operating with the enforcement authorities; and • make changes to ensure that fines are calcu - lated in a transparent and more predictable manner, including changes to provide more information to the public about the use and terms of penalty notices. The Ministry of Justice and Public Security has not (yet) provided its views of the Høivik Evalu - ation (as further commented on in 9.2 Likely Changes to the Applicable Legislation of the Enforcement Body ).
9. Assessment 9.1 Assessment of the Applicable Enforced Legislation
Group of States Against Corruption (GRECO) published its Fifth Evaluation Round Compliance Report on Norway in January 2023. The report focused on preventing corruption and promot - ing integrity in central governments (top execu - tive functions) and law enforcement agencies. GRECO made 14 recommendations, focusing mainly on measures related to training, aware - ness and strengthening internal guidelines to ensure integrity. In May 2021, the Ministry of Justice and Public Security published an evaluation, conducted by Knut Høivik (PhD), of the Norwegian legislation governing corporate criminal liability (Sections 27 and 28 of the Penal Code) and the Anti-cor - ruption Provisions (Sections 387, 388 and 389 of the Penal Code) (the “Høivik Evaluation”). This Høivik Evaluation is still under review by the Min - istry (see 9.2 Likely Changes to the Applicable Legislation of the Enforcement Body ). In his study, Høivik conducted a comprehensive evaluation and proposed a revision of the rules on corporate liability in light of the fact that it is 30 years since the general legal basis for cor - porate liability was introduced in 1991. Further - more, Høivik assessed whether there is a need for changes to the Anti-corruption Provisions to
318 CHAMBERS.COM
Powered by FlippingBook