Considering the European Union's efforts to tackle various forms of
financial crime more effectively, especially since the financial crisis of
2008, one would expect that the Union has also been strengthening its grip
on national law with respect to corporate financial crime. Instead, this
Article finds that the EU approach to corporate financial crime has actually
not evolved that much over the past two decades. Moreover, this Article
demonstrates that EU law still fails to sufficiently take into account the
specific features of corporate entities (as opposed to individuals), as well
as to fully exploit the potential strengths of a criminal law approach, as
opposed to an administrative or civil law approach. In the author's view,
the EU should more carefully consider the objectives and strengths of
different kinds of enforcement mechanisms and adopt a more coherent
approach, particularly with respect to corporations. Furthermore, when it
comes to corporate punishment, the EU seemingly lacks ambition and
creativity. EU legal instruments focus strongly on fines while
insufficiently exploring other, potentially more adequate sanctions to
achieve certain punishment goals. Ultimately, this may undermine the
effectiveness of the EU's fight against corporate financial crime.