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Abstract: Pre-trial diversion agreement, originating in the United States of America, is an alternative to prosecution aimed at improving corporate gover- nance by mandating an errant corporation to instal an effective internal mech- anism to monitor its governance compliance. The American model, which has been influential in several leading jurisdictions, both common law and civil law, found its way into China. With China’s commitment to developing a thriving but disciplined market, it is a priority that corporations, enterprises and other legal entities, whether in the public sector or private sector, con- duct their business in a lawful manner. In 2020 China introduced an alterna- tive to prosecution for corporate crime in the form of “corporate compliance non-prosecution”. The pilot scheme of 2020 has since been further developed especially with the refinement of the third-party supervision and assessment mechanism. After setting out the origin and development of the American model of non-prosecution and its adaptation in other jurisdictions to facilitate a comparative study, this article examines the Chinese model, setting out how the system works through a review of the four sets of typical cases that have so far been released by the Supreme People’s Procuratorate. It highlights the achievements of the Chinese experience and areas for further improvement.
Keywords: alternatives to prosecution, compliance non-prosecution, corpo- rate criminal liability, corporate governance, plea leniency, public interest
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