Reconstructing Family Business Inheritance Disputes through PENA-Based Holistic Justice and Anti-Criminalization

Abstract

Inheritance disputes in family businesses are not limited to the distribution of estate assets; they also involve share ownership, corporate control, directorship, and the continuity of the enterprise. When family deliberation reaches a deadlock, a private conflict is often moved to the criminal justice system through allegations of embezzlement, fraud, or document forgery, thereby transforming criminal law into an instrument of pressure. This study aims to reconstruct a holistic-justice model for resolving family-business inheritance disputes by developing the PENA Theory, namely Preventive, Ethical, Narrative, and Accountable, within the framework of the rule-of-law state. The research uses normative legal research with statutory, conceptual, and case approaches. Primary and secondary legal materials are examined qualitatively and analyzed prescriptively to formulate a model that can be operationalized by families, corporate actors, investigators, prosecutors, mediators, and judges. The analysis shows that the blurred boundary between breach of contract, ownership conflict, corporate dispute, and criminal offense creates a space for criminalization that conflicts with the principles of ultimum remedium, culpability, legality, and proportionality. The PENA Theory offers four mutually reinforcing dimensions: prevention through governance and family agreements; ethical screening of initial mens rea as the civil-criminal distinguisher; restorative narrative space through penal mediation; and layered accountability that safeguards legal certainty, business sustainability, and substantive justice.