Reconstruction of Substantive Criminal Law Policy Regarding Corporations as Perpetrators of The Crime of Human Trafficking (TPPO)

Abstract

The Crime of Human Trafficking (TPPO) has evolved into one of the most heinous forms of organized transnational crime, in which corporations now frequently act as the intellectual actors behind a façade of institutional legality. In practice, the mobility of this crime is no longer driven conventionally solely by individual offenders, but also involves legal corporations such as licensed labor recruitment agencies, shell companies, and hotel networks. Nevertheless, Indonesia's current substantive criminal law architecture has not been able to keep pace with the complexity of these criminal methods because it remains confined within a doctrine of criminal liability oriented toward natural persons as legal subjects. Doctrinal uncertainty regarding the formulation of corporate fault has caused law enforcement within the human trafficking eradication regime to be ineffective and often fail to reach corporations as the primary beneficiaries of human exploitation. This study aims to critically analyze the fundamental weaknesses in the formulation of corporate criminal liability under Law Number 21 of 2007 concerning the Eradication of the Crime of Human Trafficking, and to formulate an ideal reconstruction of future substantive criminal law policy. Using a normative juridical research method with statutory, conceptual, and comparative approaches, this study identifies legal gaps and operational ambiguities regarding the criteria for determining corporate criminal intent. As a solution, this study offers a model for reconstructing substantive criminal law policy by explicitly integrating the doctrines of vicarious liability and identification into Indonesia's positive law. Future legislative policy must strengthen criminal sanctions in the form of permanent revocation of business licenses, comprehensive confiscation of corporate assets, and the imposition of multiplied fines as effective deterrent instruments. This transformation is absolutely necessary to shift the paradigm of criminal law enforcement from a traditional individual-centered approach toward a modern corporate-oriented Reconstruction of Substantive Criminal Law... (Shodiq Munawar) The copyright of this document is owned by Faculty of Law UNISSULA and is protected by the law ║ 1411 FACULTY OF LAW PROCEEDING OF INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE LAW DEVELOPMENT FOR PUBLIC WELFARE ISSN: 2798-9313 LICS 2026 Topic: Strengthening Legal Frameworks for Combating Human Trafficking and Enhancing Protection of Women and Children approach that is responsive to victim protection. Through strengthening the substance of substantive criminal law, it is expected that Indonesia's criminal justice system will produce progressive and just decisions while simultaneously dismantling the economic foundations of corporate-based human trafficking syndicates in order to uphold civilized humanity.