Reconceptualising corporate compliance

• Main Author: Donovan, A. H. L. P
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Published: UCL (University College London) 2016

Corporate compliance practices have, once again, become the subject of significant debate, and, more recently, regulatory reform. However, whilst recent tax practices have, for now, aligned public opinion on the question of corporate spirited compliance it nevertheless remains a subject of great conceptual difficulty. The seemingly innocuous question of whether corporations should comply with the spirit, rather than simply the letter, of the law concerns a diverse range of disciplines from political philosophy to corporate theory and (when seeking to instrumentalise this change) behavioural psychology. However, this conceptual challenge is not simply one of academic interest. A corporation's narrow understanding of their relationship with, and obligations for, compliance pervades all areas of corporate activity whilst also having an often-overlooked impact on those individuals acting on its behalf. Without reframing this understanding, meaningful and sustainable reform will remain elusive. This thesis seeks to address these difficulties by establishing a robust normative case for spirited compliance whilst challenging the powerful perception that creative compliance is a legitimate corporate strategy within a capitalist market economy. In doing so it offers a revised framework in which to define 'compliance,' providing legitimacy for recent attempts at regulatory reform in this area.