The paper focuses on ‘double-track sanctioning systems’ on legal persons from a European ne bis in idem perspective. In addition to highlighting the peculiarities of the said punitive models on market abuse and tax offences, some reflections are devoted to the ‘connection test’ at European level.
The paper focuses on ne bis in idem, shaped as unitary principle by the latest judgments of the ECHR and the EUCJ, including both its procedural and substantive features. After having reconstructed the changing structure of the said principle in the longstanding supranational case-law and having shown the existence of several coexisting versions, that refer to different principles, it is advanced the argument according to which the ne bis in idem is not an autonomous principle, being rather a “kind of rule” per se neutral, capable of including principles of any sort. A new interpretation of the “European ne bis in idem” is then offered from such a perspective, including the parameters used by the European Courts in order to assess derogations, especially with respect to a ‘double track’ cumulative sanctioning system and its compatibility with general principles and fundamental rights limiting the jus puniendi