La responsabilité pénale des médecins du travail : un répertoire renouvelé ?

The question of penal responsibility strongly worries occupational physicians and is not really well known yet. This paper intends to provide a better understanding of the reasons for this increasing penalization of the law but also wishes to better define the real risks for the occupational physician. We will first briefly describe the principles of penal responsbility by giving a definition of this notion and mentioning its various aspects. The specific field of responsability of the occupational physician as salaried practicioner working as an advisor for employees and employers will then be considered. Deliberate but above all unintentional offences will be examined and put into perspective with respect to the case law decisions. Finally, we will consider current evolutions of occupational physician responsibility, in particular through the incrimination of “failure to assist a person in danger”, in order to decifer the real intention of the judges when involving occupational physician in penal trials.