The gradual economic integration of Western Europe is bringing about far reaching changes in the countries taking part in the venture. One of the features of this process - and a prominent feature - is making itself felt in the field of industrial organization through a profound change in the structure of a large number of markets. In taking advantage of the larger market created by the elimination of national frontiers as barriers to trade, large firms playa leading role - firms from within the European Community and from outside. The merger device has been a major vehicle of expansion, and in several sectors of manufacturing industry this has already led to an in crease in the relative importance of a few firms. Over the years, public opinion has become increasingly aware of the con centration of industrial power and of itG attendant problems. Merger law and control of the operations of la: e corporations are current topics of discussion. More especially, merger statutes have recently been enacted in Britain and Germany, and the matter is coming to be one of the chief pre occupations of the European Commission."

This book explains, from a public law perspective, the constitutional purpose and significance of audit, a topic which has been largely neglected, and casts light on important aspects of accountability in the British system of government. The book suggests that audit, as an accountability mechanism, has been underplayed to date and that greater significance should be attributed to its role in delivering both democratic accountability and, within government, managerial accountability. The focus of the book is central government audit in Britain, but the constitutional role of audit at a local level and at a European Union level is also considered. The book begins by explaining, in a non -technical way, the basic concepts of accounting and audit, and sets audit in its historical context. The different types of audit and the institutional framework within which audit is conducted are then analysed. Any shortcomings in each area are identified and suggestions for change are explored. The constitutional significance of the changes to the role of audit that are currently taking place are analysed, as are the effects of developments, such as the creation of agencies, contracting-out, and more recently, resource accounting and budgeting and devolution, on the constitutional role of audit. The fundamental principles, both institutional and substantive, of public sector audit are identified and new tasks that audit could fulfil at central government level are proposed.

A critical examination of the wrongdoing underlying the 2008 financial crisis An unprecedented breakdown in the rule of law occurred in the United States after the 2008 financial collapse. Bank of America, JPMorgan, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and other large banks settled securities fraud claims with the Securities and Exchange Commission for failing to disclose the risks of subprime mortgages they sold to the investing public. But a corporation cannot commit fraud except through human beings working at and managing the firm. Rather than breaking up these powerful megabanks, essentially imposing a corporate death penalty, the government simply accepted fines that essentially punished innocent shareholders instead of senior leaders at the megabanks. It allowed the real wrongdoers to walk away from criminal responsibility. In The Case for the Corporate Death Penalty, Mary Kreiner Ramirez and Steven A. Ramirez examine the best available evidence about the wrongdoing underlying the financial crisis. They reveal that the government failed to use its most powerful law enforcement tools despite overwhelming proof of wide-ranging and large-scale fraud on Wall Street before, during, and after the crisis. The pattern of criminal indulgences exposes the onset of a new degree of crony capitalism in which the most economically and political powerful can commit financial crimes of vast scale with criminal and regulatory immunity. A new economic royalty has seized the commanding heights of our economy through their control of trillions in corporate and individual wealth and their ability to dispense patronage. The Case for the Corporate Death Penalty shows that this new lawlessness poses a profound threat that urgently demands political action and proposes attainable measures to restore the rule of law in the financial sector.

Many critics seem to consider it inappropriate or unnecessary to ask what Montaigne means by the faculty of judgment. Laumonier speaks of "Ie bon sens, qu'il oppose si souvent a la memoire et qu'il appelle encore 'jugement' et 'entendement', c'est-a-dire la faculte de penser et de reflechir juste. " 1 Our appreciation of what is implied by judgment, that is by Montaigne's notion of judgment, has been delayed perhaps by a too facile acceptance of a so-called synonymity of meaning among the psychological terms used by Montaigne. In a discussion of key concepts in Montaigne, Donald M. Frame has accurately summarized the present situation with regard to our knowledge of Montaigne's notion of judgment and other key concepts: "We all have our hunches, but we need more than that. " 2 For the expression of his interest and concern for the intellectual and moral activities and capabilities of the mind, Montaigne draws upon a broad and elementary semantic field. These primary psychological terms are jugement, entendement, sens, raison, discours, and conscience. Al- though these words may be used synonymously, Montaigne does seem to maintain certain basic distinctions among them; frequent substi- tutions of terms must be the result of semantic and ideational differ- ences. Moreover, the association of several psychological words within a single sentence implies gradations, however slight they may be.

By studying intersections among new cults of wealth, ritually empowered amulets and professional spirit mediumship-which have emerged together in Thailand's dynamic religious field in recent decades-Capitalism Magic Thailand explores the conditions under which global modernity produces new varieties of enchantment. Bruno Latour's account of modernity as a condition fractured between rationalizing ideology and hybridizing practice is expanded to explain the apparent paradox of new forms of magical ritual emerging alongside religious fundamentalism across a wide range of Asian societies. In Thailand, novel and increasingly popular varieties of ritual now form a symbolic complex in which originally distinct cults centred on Indian deities, Chinese gods and Thai religious and royal figures have merged in commercial spaces and media sites to sacralize the market and wealth production. Emerging within popular culture, this complex of cults of wealth, amulets and spirit mediumship is supported by all levels of Thai society, including those at the acme of economic and political power. New theoretical frameworks are presented in analyses that challenge the view that magic is a residue of premodernity, placing the dramatic transformations of cultic ritual centre stage in modern Thai history. It is concluded that modern enchantment arises at the confluence of three processes: neoliberal capitalism's production of occult economies, the auraticizing effects of technologies of mass mediatization, and the performative force of ritual in religious fields where practice takes precedence over doctrine.

A team of scholars with backgrounds in criminology, sociology, economics, business, government regulation, and law examine the historical, social, and cultural causes of the 2008 economic crisis. Essays probe the workings of the toxic subprime loan industry, the role of external auditors, the consequences of Wall Street deregulation, the manipulations of alpha hedge fund managers, and the "Ponzi-like" culture of contemporary capitalism. They unravel modern finance's complex schematics and highlight their susceptibility to corruption, fraud, and outright racketeering. They examine the involvement of enablers, including accountants, lawyers, credit rating agencies, and regulatory workers, who failed to protect the public interest and enforce existing checks and balances. While the United States was "ground zero" of the meltdown, the financial crimes of other countries intensified the disaster. Internationally-focused essays consider bad practices in China and the European property markets and draw attention to the far-reaching consequences of transnational money laundering and tax evasion schemes. By approaching the 2008 crisis from the perspective of white collar criminology, contributors build a more general understanding of the collapse and crystallize the multiple human and institutional factors preventing capture of even the worst offenders.

This collection offers a comparative overview of how financial regulations have evolved in various European countries since the introduction of the single European market in 1986. It includes a number of country studies which provides a narrative of the domestic financial regulatory structure at the beginning of the period, as well the means by which the EU Directives have been introduced into domestic legislation and the impact on the financial structure of the economy. In particular, studies highlight how the discretion allowed by the Directives has been used to meet the then existing domestic conditions and financial structure as well as how they have modified that structure. Countries covered are France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Estonia, Hungary and Slovenia. The book also contains an overview of regulatory changes in the UK and Nordic countries, and in post-crisis USA. This comparative approach raises questions about whether past and more recent regulatory changes have in fact contributed to increase financial stability in the EU. The comparative analysis provided in this book raises questions on whether the past and more recent changes are contributing to increase the financial stability and efficiency of individual banks and national financial systems. The crisis has demonstrated the drawbacks of formulating the regulatory framework on standards borrowed from the best industry practices from the large developed countries, originally designed exclusively for large global banks, but now applied to all financial institutions.

Zwei aktuellen Themen von hoher kreditwirtschaftlicher Tragweite hat die Bankrechtliche Vereinigung - Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft fA1/4r Bankrecht e.V. ihrem Bankrechtstag 2002 in Leipzig gewidmet. Neben den Auswirkungen der Schuldrechtsreform auf das Recht der BankgeschAfte wurde die unternehmensinterne Wissenszurechnung behandelt. 1. Abteilung: Neues Schuldrecht und BankgeschAfte Mathias Habersack, Mainz: Auswirkungen der Schuldrechtsreform auf das Recht der BankgeschAfte; Herbert Schimansky, Marxzell: Das Recht der Aoeberweisung ab 1. Januar 2002; Ahrend Weber, Berlin: Das neue Schuldrecht in der kreditwirtschaftlichen Praxis 2. Abteilung: Wissenszurechnung bei Kreditinstituten Josef Drexl, MA1/4nchen: Wissenszurechnung im unabhAngigen und Konzernunternehmen- Zivil-, gesellschafts- und bankrechtliche Aoeberlegungen; Gerd Nobbe, Karlsruhe: Wissenszurechnung in der Rechtsprechung des Bundesgerichtshofs; JA1/4rgen SchrAter, Frankfurt am Main: Wissenszurechnung aus der Sicht der kreditwirtschaftlichen Praxis