On July 26th and 27th 2021, GIZ and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate conducted an online workshop in Beijing on “Compliance requirements for companies”. Representatives of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, further public prosecutors from China, members of the National People’s Congress, public prosecutors from Munich and professors from law faculties of both countries attended the workshop.
The workshop was opened by Mr. Gao Jingfeng, Deputy Director of the Leading Group of Judicial Reform under the Supreme People’s Procuratorate and Dr. Marco Haase, director of the Sino-German Legal Cooperation Program, who welcomed all participants from China and Germany.
The first day of the workshop included presentations on legal compliance practice in Germany and China and on upcoming future challenges. In particular, the Chinese speakers reported on a major pilot project that has been underway since March 2020 at selected prosecutors’ offices in China to reform compliance requirements for companies.
Participants also exchanged views on how third parties can currently and in the future be involved in the procedures to relieve the burden on prosecutors and courts and to ensure uniformity of legal practice.
On the second day of the workshop, Professor Zhang Jianwei, of Tsinghua University in Beijing, introduced and critically evaluated the new corporate criminal compliance non-prosecution reform. Finally, Ms. Hildegard Bäumler-Hösl from the public prosecutor’s office I in Munich and Dr. Klaus Ruhland from the general department of public prosecution in Munich presented the course of criminal investigation proceedings and the subsequent legal consequences in the event of compliance violations by companies.
This was followed by a lively question and discussion session. In addition to the structure of the public prosecutor’s office in Germany in general, the main focus was on its role in compliance proceedings and its discretionary powers in decision-making. The participants agreed that despite the different approaches to compliance violation proceedings by companies in Germany and China, there is a need for reform and further development of the respective laws in both countries. The workshop highlighted the great importance of compliance requirements for companies once again.