Are all corporate wrongs criminal?

The increasing phenomenon of criminalising white-collar misconduct will be discussed at an upcoming workshop.

Hosted by Monash University’s Centre for Regulatory Studies and Workplace and Corporate Law Research Group (WCLRG), the Criminalisation of Corporate and White-Collar Misconduct Workshop will bring together Australia’s leading researchers in the field of white-collar crime.

Professor Christine Parker, from the Faculty of Law, coordinated the workshop with Dr Michelle Welsh from the Department of Business Law and Taxation.

“White-collar criminalisation is often a knee-jerk reflex reaction to a range of issues in different areas,” Professor Parker said.

“Through this workshop, we want to see what we can learn from speaking to each other across different areas where criminalisation has been used, sometimes without much reflection.”

Associate Professor Anne-Maree Farrell from the Faculty of Law is presenting her speech The Criminalisation of Healthcare Malpractice: Lesson Drawing from Across Sector Boundaries? at the workshop.

In her presentation, Professor Farell will examine how and why doctors come to be prosecuted for manslaughter arising out of the death of their patients, drawing on examples from Australia, New Zealand and France. She will consider whether such prosecutions are useful in terms of deterrence and whether they are likely to encourage safer healthcare practice.

Other Monash presenters at the workshop include Dr Welsh and Paul Sugden, from the WCLRG.

The Honourable Professor Murray Kellam AO, from the Department of Business Law and Taxation, will be the commentator for Dr Welsh’s speech, The Politics of Civil and Criminal Enforcement Regimes.

The Monash Centre for Regulatory Studies is a multi-faculty teaching and research centre that aims to better understand the various forces that comprise contemporary regulation at both a national and international level.

The WCLRG is a research group in the Department of Business Law and Taxation at Monash University.

The Criminalisation of Corporate and White-Collar Misconduct Workshop will be held from 9.30am-5pm on 10 May in the Monash University Law Chambers, 555 Lonsdale St, Melbourne.

Provided by Monash University