Corporate crime: State-owned enterprises in China

Conclusion A decade ago, the Chinese leadership frankly acknowledged that the model of a fully planned economy, with its system of state-owned and state-run enterprises, was what Lenin had called a bureaucratic dream. 86 Today, state-owned enterprises are enjoying far more freedom to operate, and the state is trying to control them with more law and fewer plans. The use of criminal law to confront corporate crime is part of the effort to import advanced management methods from the West. Nonetheless, in the context of state ownership and Party leadership, the appropriateness of this approach is questionable.The Company Law is a new instrument to bring about fundamental changes in China's system of business organizations. These changes will help determine the scope and limits of criminal law, as applied to corporate enterprises, in the next decade. In this context, I would suggest replacing the concept ofdanwei crime with the concept of corporate or company (gongsi) crime; distinguishing thosefaren that can independently bear criminal liability from those that cannot; and clearly defining the elements of corporate offenses. Corporate criminal liability is a concept applicable when the corporation not only commits the crime but also has the legal capacity to be liable in its own right. Individual liability is still the sole principle applicable to a government agency, even if the crime is collectively committed.Given the historic context of China's socioeconomic reform, criminal law reform can advance only gradually. To insure that Western concepts fit the Chinese setting, lawmakers must make certain that every new criminal statute or regulation is enforceable even where enterprises remain closely interconnected with the state and decision-makers in publicly owned enterprises are mainly appointees of the state.I gratefully acknowledge the invitation of Daniel Prefontaine, Director of the International Centre for Criminal Law Reform and Criminal Justice Policy, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; and of the Hon. Josiah Wood of the British Columbia Court of Appeal, to present an earlier version of this essay at the eighth international conference of the Society for the Reform of Criminal Law, Hong Kong, December 4–8, 1994. Thanks are also due to Madeleine Sann, Director of Publication,Criminal Law Forum, for her excellent editorial comments.Postgraduate Diploma of Legal Studies, ECIPSL 1984, LL.M., Shanghai Academy of Social Science 1985; Ph.D. candidate, Simon Fraser University.     

Setting limits through global budgeting: hospital cost containment in Rhode Island

In 1974, hospitals in Rhode Island have participated in annual negotiations with state officials and representatives from Blue Cross to determine the allowed increase in statewide hospital costs (the "Maxicap") for the next fiscal year, based on projected increases in hospitals' revenues, changes in patient volume and operating expenses. Individual hospital budgets may be above or below the Maxicap as long as the total increase in hospital costs for all hospitals in the state does not exceed the negotiated amount. At a time when regulatory solutions are increasingly under fire, continued support for Rhode Island's approach to hospital cost containment from third party payers, providers and public officials stands in stark contrast to other states where rate setting was either dismantled or discredited as a cost control strategy. A negotiated global cap on hospital expenditures offers an alternative to formula-based state rate-setting methodologies which could be incorporated as part of an all-payer reimbursement methodology or as an incremental step towards more comprehensive reform.     

Pathological myophosphorylase reaction in malignant hyperthermia

In malignant hyperthermia, myophosphorylase reaction shows characteristic changes that take place within minutes: (1) a generally strongly weakened reaction; (2) numerous negatively reacting fibres; (3) frequently, fibre sections that show spotty and/or striatal weak or negative reactions and fibre sections with strong striatal reactions with relatively narrow sarcomere spacings (a "sign of hypercontraction"). Obviously, the morphological findings that show characteristic "striated fibres" are typical of the malignant hyperthermia syndrome! It is important to note that the muscular fibres showing such changes are, as a rule, inconspicuous when using other stains and reactions. These pathological myophosphorylase reactions were observed in five deceased patients (one independently of anaesthesia after an extended walk) and in 19 pigs (18 times after halothane testing and once in an experimental animal with clinical evidence of the presence of malignant hyperthermia). These reactions were not noted in pigs with negative halothane reactivity or prior to halothane testing. They were also not seen in a large number of very different healthy and diseased control and reference cases from our biopsy and autopsy material. Myophosphorylase reaction enables convincing demonstration of malignant hyperthermia, past or present. Hence, it is possible to elucidate puzzling deaths or verify apparently clear death occurring during or subsequent to anaesthesia or simply following stress ("human stress syndrome"). Many of these deaths doubtlessly escape the attention of clinicians using the usual morphological examination methods. However, the reaction cannot be used to identify potential victims.