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- Art. 5a FC
- Art. 6 FC
- Art. 10 FC
- Art. 16 FC
- Art. 17 FC
- Art. 20 FC
- Art. 22 FC
- Art. 29a FC
- Art. 30 FC
- Art. 32 FC
- Art. 42 FC
- Art. 43 FC
- Art. 43a FC
- Art. 55 FC
- Art. 56 FC
- Art. 60 FC
- Art. 68 FC
- Art. 75b FC
- Art. 77 FC
- Art. 96 para. 2 lit. a FC
- Art. 110 FC
- Art. 117a FC
- Art. 118 FC
- Art. 123b FC
- Art. 136 FC
- Art. 166 FC
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- Art. 11 CO
- Art. 12 CO
- Art. 50 CO
- Art. 51 CO
- Art. 84 CO
- Art. 143 CO
- Art. 144 CO
- Art. 145 CO
- Art. 146 CO
- Art. 147 CO
- Art. 148 CO
- Art. 149 CO
- Art. 150 CO
- Art. 701 CO
- Art. 715 CO
- Art. 715a CO
- Art. 734f CO
- Art. 785 CO
- Art. 786 CO
- Art. 787 CO
- Art. 788 CO
- Transitional provisions to the revision of the Stock Corporation Act of June 19, 2020
- Art. 808c CO
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- Art. 2 PRA
- Art. 3 PRA
- Art. 4 PRA
- Art. 6 PRA
- Art. 10 PRA
- Art. 10a PRA
- Art. 11 PRA
- Art. 12 PRA
- Art. 13 PRA
- Art. 14 PRA
- Art. 15 PRA
- Art. 16 PRA
- Art. 17 PRA
- Art. 19 PRA
- Art. 20 PRA
- Art. 21 PRA
- Art. 22 PRA
- Art. 23 PRA
- Art. 24 PRA
- Art. 25 PRA
- Art. 26 PRA
- Art. 27 PRA
- Art. 29 PRA
- Art. 30 PRA
- Art. 31 PRA
- Art. 32 PRA
- Art. 32a PRA
- Art. 33 PRA
- Art. 34 PRA
- Art. 35 PRA
- Art. 36 PRA
- Art. 37 PRA
- Art. 38 PRA
- Art. 39 PRA
- Art. 40 PRA
- Art. 41 PRA
- Art. 42 PRA
- Art. 43 PRA
- Art. 44 PRA
- Art. 45 PRA
- Art. 46 PRA
- Art. 47 PRA
- Art. 48 PRA
- Art. 49 PRA
- Art. 50 PRA
- Art. 51 PRA
- Art. 52 PRA
- Art. 53 PRA
- Art. 54 PRA
- Art. 55 PRA
- Art. 56 PRA
- Art. 57 PRA
- Art. 58 PRA
- Art. 59a PRA
- Art. 59b PRA
- Art. 59c PRA
- Art. 62 PRA
- Art. 63 PRA
- Art. 67 PRA
- Art. 67a PRA
- Art. 67b PRA
- Art. 75 PRA
- Art. 75a PRA
- Art. 76 PRA
- Art. 76a PRA
- Art. 90 PRA
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- Vorb. zu Art. 1 FADP
- Art. 1 FADP
- Art. 2 FADP
- Art. 3 FADP
- Art. 5 lit. f und g FADP
- Art. 6 Abs. 6 and 7 FADP
- Art. 7 FADP
- Art. 10 FADP
- Art. 11 FADP
- Art. 12 FADP
- Art. 14 FADP
- Art. 15 FADP
- Art. 19 FADP
- Art. 20 FADP
- Art. 22 FADP
- Art. 23 FADP
- Art. 25 FADP
- Art. 26 FADP
- Art. 27 FADP
- Art. 31 para. 2 lit. e FADP
- Art. 33 FADP
- Art. 34 FADP
- Art. 35 FADP
- Art. 38 FADP
- Art. 39 FADP
- Art. 40 FADP
- Art. 41 FADP
- Art. 42 FADP
- Art. 43 FADP
- Art. 44 FADP
- Art. 44a FADP
- Art. 45 FADP
- Art. 46 FADP
- Art. 47 FADP
- Art. 47a FADP
- Art. 48 FADP
- Art. 49 FADP
- Art. 50 FADP
- Art. 51 FADP
- Art. 54 FADP
- Art. 57 FADP
- Art. 58 FADP
- Art. 60 FADP
- Art. 61 FADP
- Art. 62 FADP
- Art. 63 FADP
- Art. 64 FADP
- Art. 65 FADP
- Art. 66 FADP
- Art. 67 FADP
- Art. 69 FADP
- Art. 72 FADP
- Art. 72a FADP
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- Art. 2 CCC (Convention on Cybercrime)
- Art. 3 CCC (Convention on Cybercrime)
- Art. 4 CCC (Convention on Cybercrime)
- Art. 5 CCC (Convention on Cybercrime)
- Art. 6 CCC (Convention on Cybercrime)
- Art. 7 CCC (Convention on Cybercrime)
- Art. 8 CCC (Convention on Cybercrime)
- Art. 9 CCC (Convention on Cybercrime)
- Art. 11 CCC (Convention on Cybercrime)
- Art. 12 CCC (Convention on Cybercrime)
- Art. 25 CCC (Convention on Cybercrime)
- Art. 29 CCC (Convention on Cybercrime)
- Art. 32 CCC (Convention on Cybercrime)
- Art. 33 CCC (Convention on Cybercrime)
- Art. 34 CCC (Convention on Cybercrime)
FEDERAL CONSTITUTION
CODE OF OBLIGATIONS
FEDERAL LAW ON PRIVATE INTERNATIONAL LAW
LUGANO CONVENTION
CODE OF CRIMINAL PROCEDURE
CIVIL PROCEDURE CODE
FEDERAL ACT ON POLITICAL RIGHTS
CIVIL CODE
FEDERAL ACT ON CARTELS AND OTHER RESTRAINTS OF COMPETITION
FEDERAL ACT ON INTERNATIONAL MUTUAL ASSISTANCE IN CRIMINAL MATTERS
DEBT ENFORCEMENT AND BANKRUPTCY ACT
FEDERAL ACT ON DATA PROTECTION
SWISS CRIMINAL CODE
CYBERCRIME CONVENTION
- I. Preliminary remarks
- II. Protected legal interest
- III. Perpetration
- IV. Undue advantage
- V. Offense
- VI. Consideration
- VII. Subjective elements of the offense
- VIII. Concurrence
- Bibliography
I. Preliminary remarks
1 Passive bribery of public officials is the mirror image of active bribery of public officials and is punishable by law if a public official demands, allows himself to be promised or accepts an undue advantage in return for an official act that is contrary to his duties or is discretionary.
II. Protected legal interest
2 The protected legal interest is identical to that of active bribery of public officials (see OK-Baumgartner/Hurni, Art. 322ter N. 1 ff.) .
III. Perpetration
3 The perpetrator of passive bribery of public officials is the public official (see the list in OK-Baumgartner/Hurni, Art. 322ter N. 10 et seq.). Only a person who holds an office can be liable to prosecution for passive bribery of public officials. Art. 322quater SCC is therefore a special offense.
4 In the context of subsidiary corporate criminal liability, it is theoretically conceivable that a company may also be liable to prosecution for passive bribery of public officials within the meaning of Art. 102 para. 1 SCC, particularly if it is a state-owned or mixed-economy company. In order to qualify as a state-owned or mixed-economy company, it is crucial that the public sector exercises control over the company and that the company performs a public function. Examples include public-law institutions such as SUVA or special-law companies such as Swiss Federal Railways SBB, Swiss Post AG, Swisscom AG or public limited companies under the law of obligations in which the public sector controls the company, such as Flughafen Zürich AG. According to current case law of the Federal Supreme Court, however, the cantonal banks should not be considered state-owned companies, despite the special legal basis.
5 Of course, in such a case, the (strict) requirements of subsidiary corporate criminal liability pursuant to Art. 102 para. 1 SCC must be examined. These requirements are met if a natural person commits an offence while carrying out business activities within the scope of the corporate purpose for the state-owned enterprise and it is not possible to attribute this offence or the act or omission to a specific natural person due to a lack of organization. The application of subsidiary corporate criminal liability is therefore theoretically also conceivable for passive bribery of public officials pursuant to Art. 322quater SCC. In practice, however, subsidiary corporate criminal liability is unlikely to ever be applied, as the requirements for proving the commission of the offense by an (unknown) natural person as an objective condition for criminal liability are de facto impossible for the prosecuting authorities to prove.
IV. Undue advantage
6 The concept of undue advantage corresponds to that of active bribery of public officials (see OC-Baumgartner/Hurni, Art. 322ter N. 21 et seq.).
V. Offense
7 The offense consists of demanding, being promised or accepting the undue advantage by the public official.
8 Demanding is a unilateral declaration of intent by the public official, according to which the public official requests the bribe-giver to provide an undue advantage. The communication of such a request may be express or implied. The offense is completed as soon as the demand has reached the recipient. Consequently, an attempt can only exist if the public official has sent the demand to the recipient but, for whatever reason, it does not reach the recipient or does not reach the recipient (see OK-Baumgartner/Hurni, Art. 322ter N. 39 et seq.).
9 The offense of accepting a promise is understood to be the express or implied acceptance of an offer of a bribe. The undue advantage is paid at a later date.
10 The offense of accepting an undue advantage is committed when the public official has accepted the undue advantage. It is conceivable that the public official only realizes that it is an undue advantage after accepting it. In such a situation, the doctrine takes the view that the element of acceptance of an undue advantage is fulfilled if the public official benefits from it. According to the opinion expressed here, all bribery offenses are communication offenses (see OK-Baumgartner/Hurni, Art. 322ter SCC N. 39). The offense is completed with the acceptance of an undue advantage. Accordingly, according to the view expressed here, it must be sufficient that the bribed person subjectively wants to benefit from the undue advantage or that the bribed person subjectively assumes that he can benefit from the undue advantage, even if this is objectively not possible. This is therefore the case if the public official recognizes the nature of the benefit as an undue advantage and then neither returns it nor hands it over to the head of the office, but intends to subsequently carry out an official act in breach of duty. However, if the public official continues to be convinced of the admissibility of accepting the benefit, such a situation must be examined in accordance with the rules of mistake of fact pursuant to Art. 13 SCC.
VI. Consideration
11 The elements of the offense of acting in breach of duty in connection with the official activity, or the equivalent relationship, correspond to those of active bribery of public officials (see OC-Baumgartner/Hurni, Art. 322ter N. 42 et seq.).
VII. Subjective elements of the offense
12 In subjective terms, intent is required, whereby contingent intent is sufficient. Contingent intent is conceivable, for example, in those cases in which the public official only casually expresses the offer of a bribe or the willingness to bribe the bribing person in a conversation, but the public official accepts that the bribing person is aware of these statements. Whether the public official has the intention of actually allowing himself to be influenced by the undue advantage is irrelevant, as the actual performance of the act in breach of duty is not necessary to fulfill the elements of the offence (see N. 6 et seq.).
VIII. Concurrence
13 Cf. OC-Baumgartner/Hurni, Art. 322ter N. 56 on the relationship with Art. 322quater.
14 Art. 322sexies is superseded as a catch-all provision by Art. 322quater.
15 With regard to criminal acts against official and professional duty, there is genuine competition due to the different legal interests protected (see OC-Baumgartner/Hurni, Art. 322ter N. 56).
16 The relationship between Art. 168 para. 3 and Art. 322quater is controversial, although it can generally be assumed that Art. 322quater takes precedence due to the higher threat of punishment.
Bibliography
Balmelli Marco, Die Bestechungstatbestände des schweizerischen Strafgesetzbuches, Bern 1996.
Hilti Martin, Kommentierung zu Art. 322quater StGB, in: Graf Damian K. (Hrsg.), Annotierter Kommentar StGB, Bern 2020.
Isenring Bernhard, Kommentierung zu Art. 322quater StGB, in: Donatsch Andreas (Hrsg.), Orell Füssli Kommentar, StGB, 21. Aufl., Zürich 2022.
Jositsch Daniel, Das Schweizerische Korruptionsstrafrecht, Zürich 2004.
Kaiser Rolf, Die Bestechung von Beamten unter Berücksichtigung des Vorentwurfs zur Revision des schweizerischen Korruptionsstrafrechts, Zürich 1999.
Niggli Marcel Alexander/Mäder Stefan, Unternehmensstrafrecht, in: Ackermann Jürg (Hrsg.), Wirtschaftsstrafrecht der Schweiz, 2. Aufl., Bern 2021, S. 195-238.
Pieth Mark, Kommentierung zu Art. 322quater StGB, in: Niggli Marcel Alexander/Wiprächtiger Hans (Hrsg.), Basler Kommentar, StGB II, 4. Aufl., Basel 2019.
Pieth Mark, Korruptionsstrafrecht, in: Ackermann Jürg (Hrsg.), Wirtschaftsstrafrecht der Schweiz, 2. Aufl., Bern 2021, S. 803-846 (zit. Pieth, Wirtschaftsstrafrecht).
Weber Daniel S./Baumgartner Loris, Zur Schutznormqualität von Art. 102 Abs. 2 StGB, AJP 2023, S. 437-445.