Monaco has introduced a new “plead guilty” procedure that allows certain criminal cases to be resolved without a conventional trial, alongside a separate mechanism for companies facing financial, economic and other specified offences. Here is what the changes mean and how they will work.
The reform was introduced under Law No. 1.593, passed by the National Council in June and enacted by Prince Albert II on 18th June. The latest edition of the Journal de Monaco has now published the legislative work behind the law, providing an opportunity to look more closely at one of the more significant recent changes to criminal procedure in the Principality.
At its heart are two new procedures: plaider coupable, or “plead guilty”, for individuals, and convention pénale, a separate mechanism principally relevant to companies and other legal entities.
What does ‘plead guilty’ mean in Monaco?
The new plaider coupable procedure allows the Prosecutor General to propose a penalty directly to an adult accused of an eligible offence, provided that person acknowledges both the facts of the case and their criminal classification.
The accused must be represented by a lawyer and must agree to the proposed punishment. The process can be initiated by the Prosecutor General or requested by the accused or their lawyer, and can also apply to a case that has already reached an investigating judge.
It does not mean every criminal case can now be settled with a guilty plea. Crimes — the most serious category of offences under Monaco law — are excluded, while contraventions can only be included when connected with the principal eligible offence.
The essential difference is that, in appropriate cases where the facts are accepted, Monaco now has a route to a criminal outcome without putting everyone through a conventional trial.
What happens after someone agrees to the penalty?
Accepting the prosecutor’s proposal is not the end of the process. The procedure retains judicial oversight, meaning the outcome must pass through the court rather than amounting to a private agreement between the prosecution and the accused.
That safeguard is an important part of the reform: the intention is to make suitable cases faster and more efficient without removing the judiciary from the process.
Companies get a different procedure
The second part of the law, convention pénale, is particularly relevant to Monaco’s substantial corporate and financial sectors.
This procedure allows the Prosecutor General, before prosecution has formally begun, to propose an agreement to a legal entity implicated in certain offences.
There is an important distinction from plaider coupable: the company does not have to admit guilt. Instead, it acknowledges the reality of the facts and agrees to comply with obligations set out under the convention.
The range of offences covered is significant and includes money laundering and related predicate offences, breaches of asset-freezing rules, tax offences, fraud, breach of trust, certain environmental offences, beneficial-ownership violations and offences involving the accuracy of company accounts.
That gives Monaco’s prosecutors another way of dealing with complex corporate and financial cases at a time when the Principality has been substantially strengthening its framework for combating money laundering and financial crime.
Is this a way of avoiding prosecution?
Not without conditions. A convention pénale remains subject to judicial validation, and the President of the Court of First Instance can refuse to approve an agreement. If the obligations contained in an agreement are not fulfilled, conventional proceedings can resume.
The two procedures therefore serve different purposes but share the same underlying idea: not every case necessarily needs to travel through the full traditional criminal trial process to reach an enforceable outcome.
For individuals who acknowledge an offence, Monaco now has a formal guilty-plea route. For companies facing certain financial, economic and other offences, prosecutors have a mechanism for reaching a judicially supervised resolution without necessarily pursuing a conventional prosecution.
Together, they represent a significant change in the way criminal justice can be administered in the Principality — and one that Monaco residents and businesses are now likely to encounter increasingly in practice.
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Photo credit: Cassandra Tanti, Monaco Life