Corruption in Commercial Enterprise

This edited collection analyses, from multiple disciplinary perspectives, the issue of corruption in commercial enterprise across different sectors and jurisdictions. Corruption is commonly recognised as a major ‘social bad’, and is seriously harmful to society, in terms of the functioning and legitimacy of political-economic systems, and the day-to-day lives of individuals.

There is nothing novel about bribes in brown envelopes and dubious backroom deals, ostensibly to grease the wheels of business. Corrupt practices like these go to the very heart of illicit transacting in both legal markets – such as kickbacks to facilitate contracts in international commerce – and illegal markets – such as payoffs to public officials to turn a blind eye to cross-border smuggling. Aside from the apparent pervasiveness and longevity of corruption in commercial enterprise, there is now renewed policy and operational attention on the phenomenon, prompting and meriting deeper analysis.

Corruption in commercial enterprise, encompassing behaviours often associated with corporate and white-collar crime, and corruption in criminal commercial enterprise, where we see corruption central to organised crime activities, are major public policy issues. This collection gives us insight into their nature, organisation and governance, and how to respond most appropriately and effectively.

Liz Campbell is Professor of Criminal Law at Durham University. Her research is socio-legal, and currently is focused on responses to corruption, organised and organisational crime; and the presumption of innocence. She is interested in the interfaces between criminal law and regulation and between criminal and legal behaviour, and the politics of criminal law definitions. Her research has been funded by Research Council UK’s Partnership for Conflict, Crime and Security; Arts and Humanities Research Council; Law Foundation of New Zealand; Fulbright Commission; Modern Law Review; and Carnegie Trust.

Nicholas Lord is a Reader in Criminology at the University of Manchester. Nicholas has research expertise in white-collar, financial and organised crimes, and their regulation and control. He is currently undertaking funded research into the misuse of corporate vehicles in the concealment of illicit finances (PaCCS), the nature and governance of domestic bribery (British Academy), the counterfeit alcohols (Alcohol Research UK), the finances of modern slavery (N8) and to undertake a Global White-Collar Crime Survey (White & Case LLP). His book Regulating Corporate Bribery in International Business (2014, Routledge) was the winner of the British Society of Criminology Book Prize 2015.