In Germany, the notion of corporate criminal liability has attracted the attention of lawyers, scholars, and recently of politics. At present, legal persons are not criminally responsible but may only receive administrative fines under Section 30 of the Regulatory Offences Law. In light of recent scandals involving large business enterprises, efforts are under way to expand the liability of legal persons for misconduct, possibly leading to the introduction of criminal sanctions. In China, corporate criminal responsibility for certain offenses (unit crimes) were adopted in 1997 and has been practiced ever since. Here, both the unit and its responsible members are punished if a unit crime has occurred. In addition, administrative agencies may impose administrative sanctions and measures on the unit. Since the practical and legal problems appear similarly in the German and Chinese systems, a brief review of the Chinese experience may be helpful for the German reform process.

1. Introduction
 2. The Development of Unit Crimes in Chinese Law
 3. Substantive Law
  A. The Concept of ‘Unit’ used in Chinese Criminal Law
  B. The Relationship between the Unit and its Responsible Members
  C. The Prerequisites for Differentiating Unit Crimes and Crimes of Natural Persons
  D. Administrative Sanctions and Criminal Punishment Available for Units
 4. Criminal Procedure
  A. Defendants
  B. The Representative of the Defendant Unit in the Procedure
 5. Conclusion
 References

• Jiahui Shi(University of Cologne)