Society, Courts and Ethics Three Solutions

Prosecutions do have a cathartic effect and may help to mobilize reform. Laws can support other reforms. But they are not the key part of the answer.

Firstly, prosecutions take a long time and are frequently inconclusive. Even if successful they will not bring back the destroyed shareholder wealth, the stolen money, the uncollected revenue or even a significant proportion of it. Even for the few who are brought to justice, most of the wealth that has been destroyed or stolen will be irrecoverable. This is not just because it can not be traced but often because it no longer exists.

Secondly, as we all know, laws whose purposes are not internalized are rarely effective. This is where ethics comes in.

Thirdly, they do not address the key institutional questions of why the bad apples got to such positions of power and were tempted to abuse that power for their own ends. If there are a lot more crooked company managers or senior public servants, it is not because there are more bad people in a particular country. It is because its corporate, bureaucratic and/or political institutions generate a lot of temptations and opportunities for corruption and tend to promote those who will give in to those temptations.

The point is that many of the problems are essentially institutional rather than individual and you cannot fix institutional problems by punishing individuals.

The jury was split 10 2 in favor of conviction after sitting out for a very long time. It was later revealed that the foreman of the jury was an active supporter of the former premier a fact that he did not reveal to either the judge or his fellow jurors.

Much of this is appreciated. In fact, there are almost as many zealous proponents of ethics and institutional reform as single solutions to governance problems. Thus there is not one simple solution there are three. After law reform has failed as it always does if tried in isolation the other solutions are preached from a range of soapboxes.

Those pressing for essentially ethical solutions emphasize that law is ineffective if not backed up by the values of those they are supposed to govern. This leads to attempts to create codes of conduct and to persuade relevant players to abide by them.

Some enthusiasts push for a form of bare ethics as a singular solution involving voluntary codes and all regulation short of law . Yet ethics without the sanction of law to back it up is a charter a guide for the good and a dead letter for the bad.

Those pressing for institutional solutions are attuned to the institutional nature of many of these problems. They recognize that much of the problem lies in the opportunities and temptations for corrupt and unethical behavior and the difficulty in detecting it. The solution becomes the creation of new agencies and the reform of existing ones ticking every box on the list of institutions that have worked in other countries.