To impose or to maintain? Thoughts on the new crime of imposing or maintaining illegal conditions through means outside the employment contract

Abstract

 Among the several penal reforms that have come to light throughout 2022, the introduction of a new crime against the rights of workers may have gone unnoticed. The new article 311.2 of the Spanish Criminal Code, named as the offense of imposing or maintaining illegal conditions through means outside the employment contract, raises a relevant number of inquiries in light of the minimal intervention principle. Furthermore, its convoluted and deficient phrasing foreshadows sensitive issues regarding its judicial implementation. Considering the abovementioned, this paper endeavours, from a critical perspective, to discuss the controversial topics surrounding this legal provision and to offer a set of interpretative criteria to reach a solution that is dogmatically coherent and poses crime policy consequences that are mindful of the fundamental principles intertwined with our Criminal Law.