Murder in Black and White

Abstract

In this paper we will tell the story of “The Poisoning of the Late Levi Smelser.” Through detailed examination of both the media reports and official documents, the ensuing narrative portrays how race and gender influence the criminal justice processes of late antebellum New Orleans. As the story unfolds, two types of accounts emerge. We come to know the major participants in this case, Kitty, the slave, Levi Smelser, the victim, Theresa Smelser, the widow, and Adam Scott, the young foreman of Smelser's tin and copper shop, in their ordinary and comfortable lives before the murder. Secondly, we see these same characters play shifting roles of guilt and innocence in the planning and implementation of the murder as the newspapers reveal, magnify and glorify new “particulars,” day-by-day. This story is actually composed of a number of plots and constitutes a “scenario” of crime creation by sources of the mass media and related groups. As a scenario, the story represents “an interactional moment or site of meaning creation.”     

Markets and Corporate Conflict: A Substitution-Cost Approach to Business Litigation

This paper examines the phenomenon of conflict escalaton in business relations. A theory of when conflict between firms will proceed from informal relationship-preserving norms to more formal and destructive end games involving litigation is developed and tested. The central theoretical claim is that substitution costs serve as an impediment against the escalation of conflict. Data on market concentration and dollar flows between aggregate markets in the economy are used to develop measures of substitution costs. Measures of substitution costs and trade figures are also used to describe power advantages in markets. The theory is tested through a series of regression models. The main findings are that (1) when substitution costs are high, parties are less likely to escalate conflict and (2) asymmetric market relations result in less conflict escalation than symmetric ones. Empirical analysis indicates that substitution costs are related in predictable and meaningful ways to conflict escalation and business litigation.     

财务预警的行业差异模型研究

现有的财务预警系统大多没有考虑行业差异因素对预警指标的干扰,从而使财务预警的准确性和科学性受到了不同程度的削弱.应当在传统的预警模型基础上加入行业差异变量,对现有财务预警模型进行必要的修正,可使模型的预测能力更为精准和科学,由此帮助现代企业提高应对风险的能力.     

A Proposed Determinate Sentencing Model In Virginia: An Empirical Evaluation

After a brief presentation of issues that preceded the current disillusionment with the indeterminate sentencing practices in juvenile justice, the authors describe a determinate sentencing model being proposed in Virginia. Then, data are discussed comparing length of sentence under the proposed model to incarceration periods under the present indeterminate structure according to offense history, age, gender, and race. Finally, some immediate implications of the proposed model of sentencing are discussed.     

Corporate Social Responsibility: A Step Towards Stronger Involvement of Business in MEA Implementation?

This article explores the relationship between multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) and corporate social responsibility (CSR). It offers an overview of the linkages, a survey of relevant provisions of key MEAs, and a review of the relationship between global trade rules and MEAs. Finally, the article highlights three ongoing discussions with relevance to linkages between CSR and MEAs: (1) whether, and if so how, to identify minimum global business standards in the environmental sphere; (2) the rapidly evolving 'sub-theme' within the CSR agenda which addresses the business/development interface, and the contribution of business to poverty reduction, sustainable livelihoods and achieving the Millennium Development Goals; and (3) the development by the International Organization for Standardization of an international guidance standard on 'organizational social responsibility', which, if adopted, will become ISO 26000. The risk of seeing CSR as a new pathway to MEA implementation is that the role of MEAs in informing the development of minimum acceptable environmental norms of business behaviour will be 'watered down'. If MEAs are to learn from CSR, their competitors and often stronger counterparts in the international architecture – intergovernmental trade and investment arrangements – also need to be equipped not only to be sensitive to CSR, but actively to support it. ¹     

英国行业性组织在公司治理中的作用

英国公司治理研究致力于解决因所有权和控制权分离而产生的经典代理问题,理论界和实务界分别提出了两种机制:董事会内部监督机制和"要素市场"外部治理机制来约束监督管理层,降低代理成本。在机构化持股时代,机构投资者越来越积极参与所投资组合公司的治理事务,代表机构投资者的行业性组织在一般性参与方面起着举足轻重的作用,机构监督已成为英国公司治理的新机制。     

The Public Participation Act: A Comprehensive Model Approach to End Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation in the USA

Commentators have documented the disturbing use of the courtroom to silence those who speak out on important issues. Too often, parties resort to meritless lawsuits in response to another's free expression or communication with the government. These lawsuits are called SLAPPs, or Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation. In the USA, they have emerged as a significant threat to the rights of expression and petition guaranteed in the First Amendment to the US Constitution. A majority of the US States have passed 'anti-SLAPP laws', but there is no uniform protection. The model legislation outlined in this paper is intended to guide those who seek uniform, comprehensive protection against SLAPPs.     

公司治理中职工参与制度探析

公司治理中的职工参与是我国建立现代企业制度的一个重要课题。在传统的公司治理理论中，股东是公司唯一的统治，公司的目标定位是股东利益的最大化。而职工参与作为现代公司治理结构的特点之一，在我国有着更为重要的现实意义。管理参与作为职工参与的方式之一，是社会主义市场经济的应有之义，我们不能听任其随着国有经济成分的下降而弱化；股权参与作为职工参与的所有权根据，是保障职工地位的更有效的制度保证，更有推行的迫切需要。     

Messy Business: Media Representations of Administrative Sanctions for Corporate Offenders

Enforcement against corporate offenses is increasingly carried out by specialized regulatory agencies. These often use publicity as a regulatory tool, in the expectation that disclosure of sanctions will invoke the threat of reputational damage and broadcasts a moral message about desired behavior. This article investigates how media represent administrative offenses in the Dutch financial market, in terms of punitiveness for offenders and in terms of the message about the wrongfulness and harm of offenses. Media coverage of administrative fines is messy in several senses. First, adverse publicity is unpredictable and disproportionally affects small firms in comparison with large, professional firms. In addition, it is also messy in terms of its contribution to the prevention of corporate misbehavior. Media do not unequivocally disapprove of financial market offenses. Rather than clarifying the demarcation line between right and wrong, media describe financial market behavior as a grey zone where differences of opinion can exist over whether certain behavior constitutes an offense. More than a publicity sanction or moral message, media was found to frame offenses by retail banks and capital market firms in terms of the power struggle between firms and the regulatory authority.     

Black Mist and White Collars: Economic Crime in the United States and Japan

Comparative studies of crime have persistently challenged and daunted criminology scholars. For criminologists studying Japan, interest has traditionally been focused on the country’s much-heralded low crime rate. The current study examines white-collar lawbreaking in both the United States and Japan, focusing on similarities and differences in culture, law, criminal justice system response, corporate governance, and regulation. The study concludes that if Japan’s low crime rate is an enigma to criminologists, then its ample amounts of white-collar and corporate crime appear that much more puzzling. Given that the depth of the problem of white-collar crime goes far beyond adjudicated cases, Japan’s remarkably low rate of common crime is likely eclipsed by its rate of white-collar and corporate crime. The study concludes that the different legal and cultural contexts of the “law in inaction” go far in explaining the official nonrecognition of white-collar and corporate crime in both the United States and Japan.

论中国的银行主导公司治理模式

对转轨国家的主流研究文献认为,银行主导的公司治理模式对转轨国家是一种合适的选择.但从实施银行主导公司治理的国家的历史和现实演化,以及就中国的实际而言,这并不是一个可行的道路.     

Race and Officer Decision Making: Examining Differences in Arrest Outcomes between Black and White Officers

Since the 1960s, one of the major reform efforts in law enforcement has been to increase the number of Black Americans within police agencies and on patrol in the streets. The general premise behind these efforts has been that increased diversity will improve police–community relations and will decrease biased police behavior, particularly against Black citizens. Policies seeking to reform policing through increasing the numbers of African American officers have been implemented with little empirical evidence that an officer's race (or ethnicity) is actually related to their behavior towards citizens, in particular arrest decisions. Using data from systematic social observations of police–citizen encounters in Cincinnati, OH, this study examines the influence of officer race on arrest outcomes, focusing on the behavior of Black officers. Findings suggest that officer race has direct influence on arrest outcomes and there are substantive differences between White and Black officers in the decision to arrest. In general, White officers in our study were more likely to arrest suspects than Black officers, but Black suspects were more likely to be arrested when the decision maker was a Black officer.     

Black Hats and White Hats: Authorisation of Copyright Infringement in Australia and the United States

This article explores the concept of authorisation in relationto the possible liability of manufacturers and suppliers oftechnology if, and when, their technology is used by purchasersor other users to infringe copyright. Cases over the last 30years brought by copyright owners or holders against the manufacturersand suppliers of technology which has the potential to infringecopyright are examined, as well as the differing copyright lawsin Australia and the United States relating to the authorisationof copyright infringement. The article concludes with a discussionon the current legal approaches to authorisation and on possiblefuture approaches.