Preface

Summary

As one might expect of a work on accountability for corporate crime, this enterprise has implicated more than the usual range of suspects. Conspiracies have multiplied, much to our grateful advantage.

Five institutions especially have generously provided support during the eight years or so it has taken for this book to emerge: the University of Sydney, the Australian National University, the University of Adelaide, the American Bar Foundation, and the Max Planck Institute in Freiburg.

Colleagues at these institutions and at others where we have presented seminar papers have given us a host of useful criticisms and pointers. The same is true of legion contacts elsewhere. Whether or not they agree with central or any other parts of our argument, particular thanks are due to Patricia Apps, Ian Ayres, Valerie Braithwaite, John Byrne, Jack Coffee, Graeme Coss, Donald Cressey, Michael Detmold, John Donohue, Bernard Dunne, Paul Finn, David Fraser, Gilbert Geis, Bob Goodin, Peter Grabosky, Robert Gruner, George Hay, Jenny Hill, Michael Hill, QC, Barbara Huber, Michael Levi, Greg McCarry, Nikos Passas, Philip Pettit, Wojcieck Sadurski, Susan Shapiro, Peter Siegelman, Andrew Stewart, Tom Tyler, Diane Vaughan and our anonymous reviewers.

We also owe a great debt to hundreds of corporate executives and business regulators who have given freely of their time to discuss issues of corporate crime and accountability in which they have been involved. This book draws heavily on their contributions to several empirical projects on business regulation which have been conducted over the past decade and a half.