Prosecutors in the Boardroom: Using Criminal Law to Regulate Corporate Conduct
Anthony S. Barkow and Rachel E. Barkow
Abstract
In recent years, the Department of Justice has resolved investigations of dozens of Fortune 500 companies via deferred prosecution agreements and non-prosecution agreements, where, instead of facing criminal charges, these companies become regulated by outside agencies. Increasingly, the threat of prosecution and such prosecution agreements is being used to regulate corporate behavior. This practice has been sharply criticized on numerous fronts: agreements are too lenient, there is too little oversight of these agreements, and, perhaps most important, the criminal prosecutors doing the regula ... More
In recent years, the Department of Justice has resolved investigations of dozens of Fortune 500 companies via deferred prosecution agreements and non-prosecution agreements, where, instead of facing criminal charges, these companies become regulated by outside agencies. Increasingly, the threat of prosecution and such prosecution agreements is being used to regulate corporate behavior. This practice has been sharply criticized on numerous fronts: agreements are too lenient, there is too little oversight of these agreements, and, perhaps most important, the criminal prosecutors doing the regulating aren't subject to the same checks and balances that civil regulatory agencies are. This book explores the questions raised by this practice by compiling the insights of the leading lights in the field. The chapters move beyond criticisms of the practice to closely examine exactly how corporate regulation by prosecutors works. Broadly, the book considers who should police corporate misconduct and how it should be policed, and in conclusion offer a policy blueprint of best practices for federal and state prosecution.
Keywords:
deferred prosecution,
Department of Justice,
non-prosecution,
corporate misconduct,
corporate regulation,
corporate behavior
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2011 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780814787038 |
| Published to NYU Press Scholarship Online: March 2016 |
DOI:10.18574/nyu/9780814787038.001.0001 |
