The Profits of Recognition: A Praxeological Approach to Corporate Crime

This paper offers a methodological intervention into the study and understanding of regulation and compliance with respect to corporate crime. We advocate Pierre Bourdieu’s “praxeological” sociology as the bases for what we hold is an innovative model of regulation and compliance. The praxeological or relational approach offers structural analyses that take seriously the constructivist fixation with meaning, subjectivity, and perception without succumbing to the limitations of an interactionist conception of power. We first show theoretical affinities between the work of Pierre Bourdieu and Louis Althusser in order to highlight their shared concern with subject formation and their respective conceptions of “mis/recognition”. As this provides us with the theoretical basis of a more robust theory of regulation and compliance than is commonly found within the corporate crime literature, we argue that studies of corporate wrongdoing would benefit from rethinking the conceptions of compliance that currently shape corporate crime scholarship. We then demonstrate the benefits of this praxeological approach to regulation and compliance through discussion of the state’s efforts to discipline corporations through criminal law in Canada and the United Kingdom.     

Profits,pressure and corporate lawbreaking

While neglect, exploitation, denial of human rights and abuse of nursing home residents can be found in both non-profit and for-profit nursing homes, substantially higher non-compliance with the law is found among for-profits. A significant source of non-compliance is pressure on senior management from proprietors to reach financial goals that can only be attained by cutting corners on quality of care. This source of non-compliance is stronger among for-profits than nonprofits in a sample of 410 Australian nursing homes. These data therefore supply more systematic support for what, has been a communplace observation in the corporate crime literature: that pressure for lawbreaking comes from the top down and from profits.     

International Payoffs: Profits and Morality

Two years have passed since the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act was enacted by the U.S. Congress in 1977. Congressional intent was to sustain international confidence in U.S. business and institutions. However, ambiguities of the Act and the absence of international antibribery treaties led many U.S. businessmen to conclude that the Act put U.S. multinationals at a disadvantage in competing with foreign multinationals. This paper attempts: (1) to review the background of the Act, (2) to describe the major elements of the Act, and (3) to assess the effect of the Act on U.S. multinational companies.     

Hanging — A review

A study of 201 cases of death due to hanging, 95% being suicidal in nature and 5% being accidental; in addition there was one judicial hanging. The majority of deaths were in persons over 50 years of age, males predominating particularly in the 50 – 60 age group. In contrast to the Registrar General's annual returns for suicide which show a steady decrease over the past 20 years, deaths due to hanging have increased considerably, particularly in the last decade. This trend could be related to the dramatic fall in carbon monoxide poisoning and more circumspect prescribing of barbiturate drugs.     

Corporate Personality: A Politico‐Jurisprudential Argument

This article is an attempt to develop a practical politico‐jurisprudential account of the corporate person, which it does by building on contemporary ideas about collective and shared intentions. It argues for a model of shared intentions, which posits a set of interlocking preferences, and other supporting attitudes. It examines the work of Bratman, Gilbert, Hurley, and Sugden and addresses issues of choice, coercion and will.     

全球专利：谁专其利？

一、从“专利权杀人”谈起 美国前总统亚伯拉罕·林肯宣称:“专利是浇在智慧火花上的利益之油。”这肯定了专利制度在鼓励发明创造方面的显著作用。但在前两年,从南非一些激进的团体那里,传出了不和谐的声音——“专利权杀人”,专利这滴“利益之油”,何以成了“杀人工具”呢? 原来,由于跨国制药公司把持着艾滋病药品的专利权,使得这些药品的价格高居不下,让南非贫穷的艾滋病人难以承受,只得放弃治疗坐以待毙。因此,一些激进的团体指责专利权沾染了杀人的血腥,它们主张仿制跨国公司垄断经营的专利药品,以大幅降低药品的价格。 “专利权杀人”虽然言语夸张,但表达了发展中国家,尤其是最不发达国家的一种普遍情绪。由于TRIPS协议要求所有国家,不论富国还是穷国,都必须给予新药至少20年的专利保护,延误了发展中国家健康服务机构以及穷人们所依赖的廉价代用药品的生产。因此,在某种意义上,“专利权杀人”并非空穴来风,无中生有,而是如实反映了发展中国家在公共健康问题上所面临的专利障碍。     

False Profits: Why Product Counterfeiting is Increasing

Product counterfeiting has grown in scope, scale and complexity in the last two decades, and now affects many areas of manufacturing and retailing from clothes and CDs to items such as shampoo and vehicle components. Based on a wide range of interviews in the UK, this article argues that despite recent legislative change and increased criminal penalties for counterfeiters, enforcement is haphazard, resource problems often dictate that no criminal prosecution is undertaken, and actual penalties remain low. Moreover, questions of whether or not a particular item is counterfeit have become greatly complicated by the development of outsourcing and the rise of parallel trading. These points suggest that counterfeiting is likely to grow in the future.