Legal Literacy - Criminal law reform through the enactment of Law Number 1 of 2023 or the Criminal Code (KUHP) and Law Number 20 of 2025 or the Criminal Procedure Code (KUHAP) as of January 2, 2026, is still simply understood as a technical change to the formulation of offenses and criminal sanctions. However, there is a fundamental shift that has escaped the attention of business actors. Now, corporations are placed as full criminal subjects, no longer just objects of administrative sanctions. The new Criminal Code explicitly stipulates principal and additional penalties for corporations. This shift not only changes who can be penalized, but also touches on the basis of business certainty in Indonesia. Responsibility for criminal acts by corporations, which was initially directed to both the corporation and its management, is now clarified that the responsibility primarily lies with the corporation. Only then can it be translated to the management or the controlling party as regulated in Article 49 Paragraph 1 of the New Criminal Code.

So far, the business world has operated on the assumption that business disputes are basically resolved through civil law mechanisms such as contracts, compensation, default, and tort (PMH). Criminal law is positioned as ultimum remedium which is used in a limited way for acts containing malicious intent (mens rea) such as fraud or embezzlement. However, the new Criminal Code introduces a new paradigm that corporations can be subject to fines (principal penalties), additional penalties and various actions that have a direct impact on the structure and sustainability of the company which are more sharply regulated in Articles 329 to 338 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

Corporations in the new Criminal Code regime are placed as full subjects with the consequence that criminal law can penetrate the heart of business activities such as financial balance sheets, operational structures, and corporate governance. All criminal sanctions normatively place criminal law no longer as an instrument outside the business world, but transformed into a regulatory factor that works through financial and operational mechanisms. For example, in Article 122 paragraph (3) of the Criminal Code which regulates that when fines or additional penalties are not met, the assets or income of the corporation can be confiscated and auctioned by the Prosecutor to pay off the criminal obligations. More firmly in Article 122 paragraph (4) of the Criminal Code, if it is still not sufficient, the corporation can be subject to a substitute penalty in the form of freezing part or all of its business activities.