Abstract

Th is paper analyses the extent of penal liability of managers under Art. 296 § 1 of the Polish Penal Code. Th e terms used in that provision are vague in their meaning and as a consequence makes such a blanket criminal provision lacking independence and causes the need to decode its contents using other sources. On one hand, there are voices in the doctrine in favour of referring to informal sources specifying the rights and obligations of a manager; on the other, it is believed that the criteria for reconstructing penal evaluation of managerial decisions should be based on strictly formalised sources. Both solutions have their advantages and disadvantages. Th e authors of this paper believe that criminalization of mismanagement essentially entails the need to refer to extralegal criteria (standards) in the process of penal evaluation of managerial decisions. However, elimination of such references, whether de lege lata or de lege ferenda, seems to be impossible. It should be kept in mind that acceptance of departure from strict “formalisation” of criteria of evaluation of economic decisions from the viewpoint of criminal law also requires elimination of any arbitrariness in evaluating managerial decisions and association of penal evaluation with the specifi c subject of such appraisal, i.e. business decisions constituting the grounds for penal liability.