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1 – 10 of over 6000When someone’s actions deviate from the social norms of the majority, those actions may be used as the basis for criminal charges against the person, even when the person’s…
Abstract
When someone’s actions deviate from the social norms of the majority, those actions may be used as the basis for criminal charges against the person, even when the person’s actions are considered innocent within his or her culture. This chapter examines the evidence that can be presented on behalf of a person wishing to invoke a cultural defense, and the author also shares her own experiences in utilizing the defense as an attorney. Cultural defenses can be effective; however, there are arguments both for and against its use. Also explained are processes of pretrial litigation, qualifying an expert witness, trial, sentencing, and appeals.
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In the thought of John Paul II, an accurate understanding of the human person includes the relationship of economic life to full human life. Just as human work is essential to…
Abstract
In the thought of John Paul II, an accurate understanding of the human person includes the relationship of economic life to full human life. Just as human work is essential to human life lived in imitation of God, so is rest and leisure. Lacking a clear sense of leisure, human beings try to reach their fulfillment by increasing their possessions. As a result they give complete priority to the economic order, making it an end in itself rather than a means to the common good. They get caught up in consumerism, thinking that material possessions will bring them happiness, and thereby become willing to accept the destruction of God’s gift of creation, if only they can have more material things. This essay explores the connections between work, leisure, consumerism, and the environment primarily in Centesimus Annus (1991), Laborem Exercens (1981) and Sollicitudo Rei Socialis (1987).
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A collection of essays by a social economist seeking to balanceeconomics as a science of means with the values deemed necessary toman′s finding the good life and society enduring…
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A collection of essays by a social economist seeking to balance economics as a science of means with the values deemed necessary to man′s finding the good life and society enduring as a civilized instrumentality. Looks for authority to great men of the past and to today′s moral philosopher: man is an ethical animal. The 13 essays are: 1. Evolutionary Economics: The End of It All? which challenges the view that Darwinism destroyed belief in a universe of purpose and design; 2. Schmoller′s Political Economy: Its Psychic, Moral and Legal Foundations, which centres on the belief that time‐honoured ethical values prevail in an economy formed by ties of common sentiment, ideas, customs and laws; 3. Adam Smith by Gustav von Schmoller – Schmoller rejects Smith′s natural law and sees him as simply spreading the message of Calvinism; 4. Pierre‐Joseph Proudhon, Socialist – Karl Marx, Communist: A Comparison; 5. Marxism and the Instauration of Man, which raises the question for Marx: is the flowering of the new man in Communist society the ultimate end to the dialectical movement of history?; 6. Ethical Progress and Economic Growth in Western Civilization; 7. Ethical Principles in American Society: An Appraisal; 8. The Ugent Need for a Consensus on Moral Values, which focuses on the real dangers inherent in there being no consensus on moral values; 9. Human Resources and the Good Society – man is not to be treated as an economic resource; man′s moral and material wellbeing is the goal; 10. The Social Economist on the Modern Dilemma: Ethical Dwarfs and Nuclear Giants, which argues that it is imperative to distinguish good from evil and to act accordingly: existentialism, situation ethics and evolutionary ethics savour of nihilism; 11. Ethical Principles: The Economist′s Quandary, which is the difficulty of balancing the claims of disinterested science and of the urge to better the human condition; 12. The Role of Government in the Advancement of Cultural Values, which discusses censorship and the funding of art against the background of the US Helms Amendment; 13. Man at the Crossroads draws earlier themes together; the author makes the case for rejecting determinism and the “operant conditioning” of the Skinner school in favour of the moral progress of autonomous man through adherence to traditional ethical values.
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“Communism has never concealed the fact that it rejects all absolute concepts of morality. It scoffs at any consideration of “good” and “evil” as indisputable categories…
Abstract
“Communism has never concealed the fact that it rejects all absolute concepts of morality. It scoffs at any consideration of “good” and “evil” as indisputable categories. Communism considers morality to be relative, to be a class matter… It has infected the whole world with the belief in the relativity of good and evil.” Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn, Warning to the West, 1975.
Paying and repaying behavior are financial functions of great interest to private financial actors and public regulators, as also to academic researchers. The purpose of the paper…
Abstract
Purpose
Paying and repaying behavior are financial functions of great interest to private financial actors and public regulators, as also to academic researchers. The purpose of the paper is to empirically analyse paying and repaying behavior by combining theoretical insights from an emerging field in economics known as “culture and finance” with ideas from the economic analysis of social capital and trust in the context of different regulatory systems.
Design/methodology/approach
The present paper investigates with the help of panel data whether a culture of social trust and the scope of morality have an influence on paying and repaying behavior in different European and OECD countries.
Findings
The analysis shows that culture has an effect on firms' credit losses from the customers' payment defaults, on the overall riskiness of paying behavior and on the level of non‐performing bank loans. Also the complexity of law‐based regulation has an influence on paying and repaying behavior. The analysis also shows that high trust and morality are associated with less complex regulation and vice versa.
Practical implications
The results help private financial actors, regulators and public policy makers to design more appropriate behavioral environments for paying and repaying.
Originality/value
The paper provides the first analysis of an important issue and it serves both practical interest and further research on the topic.
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The purpose of this paper is to identify mechanisms by which an international obligation to prevent or punish corporate bribery can be enforced by a national law through trade…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify mechanisms by which an international obligation to prevent or punish corporate bribery can be enforced by a national law through trade relations.
Design/methodology/approach
The UK Bribery Act 2010 is an example of national law which enforces OECD anti‐bribery norms, with a view to effecting an institutional change in the law and morality of other countries. Taiwan is used as a case study to look at how the UK Act may achieve its intended purposes.
Findings
The paper identifies three modes of governance in the enforcement of the Act: legal exclusivism, legal inclusivism, and legal pluralism. In the mode of legal exclusivism, the Act disregards the morality of Taiwan so as to enforce the principle of transparency in trade. In the mode of legal inclusivism, the Act allows UK multinational companies to make their own “laws” so that anti‐bribery norms can be more efficiently and effectively diffused. But in the mode of legal pluralism, the Act is forced to acknowledge the law and morality of other countries (e.g. Taiwan), especially when mutual legal assistance is crucial for cross‐border investigation and prosecution.
Practical implications
Although this paper is based on an analysis of how the Act will interact with the law and morality of Taiwan, the model developed provides a lens through which one can show how an international norm enforced by a national law can function in a way that brings about institutional change in other countries.
Originality/value
The paper provides a new insight into how legal norms can be diffused through trade.
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FR. Oswald A. J. Mascarenhas, S.J.
This chapter covers basic concepts, ethical theories, and moral paradigms of corporate ethics for identifying, understanding, and responding to the turbulent market challenges of…
Abstract
Executive Summary
This chapter covers basic concepts, ethical theories, and moral paradigms of corporate ethics for identifying, understanding, and responding to the turbulent market challenges of today. The concept, nature, and domain of ethics, business ethics, managerial ethics, and corporate executive ethics are defined and differentiated for their significance. The domain, scope, and nature of related concepts such as legality, ethicality, morality, and executive spirituality are distinguished and developed. Among normative and descriptive ethical theories that we briefly review and critique here are teleology or utilitarianism, deontology or existentialism, distributive justice, corrective justice, and ethics of malfeasance and beneficence. Other moral theories of ethics such as ethics of human dignity, ethics of cardinal virtues, ethics of trusting relations, ethics of stakeholder rights and duties, ethics of moral reasoning and judgment calls, ethics of executive and moral leadership, and ethics of social and moral responsibility will be treated in a later book. The thrust of this book is positive: despite our not very commendable track record in managing this planet and its resources, our basic questions are: Where are we now? What are we now? Where should we as corporations go, and why? What are the specific positive mandates and metrics to corporate executives to reach that desired destiny? This chapter explores responses to these strategic corporate questions.
Sparked by the September 11 event, ethnic and religious diversity in the American culture has opened a new dialogue about tolerance to foreign cultures and religions. Using…
Abstract
Sparked by the September 11 event, ethnic and religious diversity in the American culture has opened a new dialogue about tolerance to foreign cultures and religions. Using Burke’s views about morality and religious tolerance, this paper argues how ethical guidelines of public administrators ought to be sought from a universal moral law derived from natural principles and constitutional values of the regime. The argument focuses on Burkean prudence as a practical application of moral law and a guide for public administrators in a diverse global environment. Furthermore, it argues civil law to be inadequate in situations where the majority favors a particular opinion against a minority population. By acknowledging a universal moral law, public administrators can play a dual role as individuals building human relations in a diverse culture, and as public servants upholding Constitutional values to preserve the integrity of public institutions
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the role of customs and morality on financial crime control in developing countries, against the background of inherited foreign laws and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the role of customs and morality on financial crime control in developing countries, against the background of inherited foreign laws and international best practice.
Design/methodology/approach
The research is explanatory, descriptive and exploratory, relying extensively on existing anti-graft journals, text books, decided cases, constitutional provisions, statutory provisions and United Nation Conventions.
Findings
The research findings and analysis propose that the existing financial crime control measures in developing nations fail to consider local customs and circumstances in formulating anti-corruption policies and laws; consequently, a meaningful and effective financial crime control in developing nations, especially in Nigeria, requires the customs and culture to be examined and evaluated with a view to designing a pragmatic policies and laws.
Originality/value
The paper contributes practical options to observed lapses in the existing financial control laws, especially corruption. The paper will be valuable to African Governments, corporations and the academic community.
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