The institutional architecture of United States immigration enforcement underwent a fundamental and unprecedented restructuring between early 2025 and the beginning of 2026. This period, characterized by a rapid expansion of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) workforce, was driven by a confluence of aggressive legislative funding, a reconfiguration of recruitment strategies, and a systemic prioritization of enforcement velocity over traditional vetting and training protocols. Central to this transformation was the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (...) (OBBBA) in July 2025, which provided the fiscal engine for a 120% increase in agency manpower within a fiscal year. This report provides an exhaustive analysis of the demographic, ideological, and operational shifts within ICE, examining the claim that the majority of the current force is composed of new hires with predominantly White, male backgrounds and potential affiliations with far-right extremist organizations. -/- . (shrink)

This paper provides strong evidence challenging the self-interest assumption that dominates the behavioral sciences and much evolutionary thinking. The evidence indicates that many people have a tendency to voluntarily cooperate, if treated fairly, and to punish noncooperators. We call this behavioral propensity “strong reciprocity” and show empirically that it can lead to almost universal cooperation in circumstances in which purely self-interested behavior would cause a complete breakdown of cooperation. In addition, we show that people are willing to punish those who (...) behaved unfairly towards a third person or who defected in a Prisoner’s Dilemma game with a third person. This suggests that strong reciprocity is a powerful device for the enforcement of social norms involving, for example, food sharing or collective action. Strong reciprocity cannot be rationalized as an adaptive trait by the leading evolutionary theories of human cooperation (in other words, kin selection, reciprocal altruism, indirect reciprocity, and costly signaling theory). However, multilevel selection theories of cultural evolution are consistent with strong reciprocity. (shrink)

In debating the ethics of immigration, philosophers have focused much of their attention on determining whether a political community ought to have the discretionary right to control immigration. They have not, however, given the same amount of consideration to determining whether there are any ethical limits on how a political community enforces its immigration policy. This article, therefore, offers a different approach to immigration justice. It presents a case against legitimate states having discretionary control over immigration by showing both how (...) ethical limits on enforcement circumscribe the options legitimate states have in determining their immigration policy and how all immigrants (including undocumented immigrants) are entitled to certain protections against a state’s enforcement apparatus. (shrink)

We examine enforcement action in China’s emerging markets by focusing on the agents that impose this action and the role played by supervisory boards. Using newly available databases, we find that supervisory boards play an active role when Chinese listed companies face enforcement action. Listed firms with larger supervisory boards are more likely to have more severe sanctions imposed upon them by the China Security Regulatory Commission, and listed companies that face more severe enforcement actions have more (...) supervisory board meetings. Our findings are of interest, as supervisory boards in China are generally perceived to be dysfunctional. This study contributes to the existing literature in three ways. First, we shed light on the effects of supervisory boards whose role in a fraud setting has not yet been examined. Second, the study has important policy implications for governance reform. Finally, our analyses provide the most up-to-date picture of fraud and governance issues in China’s ever-growing markets. (shrink)

Practitioners of psychiatry rely on techniques to influence and aid service users in making decisions regarding their treatment. However, these techniques, referred to as treatment pressures, can o...

The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) has sparked significant debate and influenced mental health legislation reforms in many countries worldwide (Gill and Sartorius 2...

The paper explores the promise of ethical codes as a means to control unethical behavior in business. After a review of arguments for ethical codes from outside the business system, the paper outlines the arguments for codes from inside the business system at the level of the industry, firm and individual executive.The paper then discusses the problems of code design — the dilemma between specific practices and general precepts — and offers a model for a thoroughgoing code. This is followed (...) by a discussion of the problems of promulgation and code enforcement. (shrink)

Over the last few years, an increasingly sophisticated literature devoted to normative questions arising out of the enforcement of immigration law had developed. In this essay, I consider what sorts of constraints considerations of justice and legitimacy may place on the enforcement of immigration law, even if we assume that states have significant discretion in setting their own immigration policies, and that open borders are not required by justice. I consider constraints placed on state or national governments, constraints (...) on enforcement by substate governments, and constraints on the actions of individuals. I show that there are significant limits on what states may do and what they may require substate governments and individuals to do, in enforcing their immigration laws, but that these constraints are not clearly incompatible with significant state discretion in setting immigration policy. Nonetheless, consideration of justice in enforcement is necessary for any complete normative account of immigration. (shrink)

This two country study examines the effect of corporate ethical values and enforcement of a code of ethics on perceptions of the role of ethics in the overall success of the firm. Additionally, the impact of organizational commitment and of individual variables such as ethical idealism and relativism was examined. The rationale for examining the perceived importance of the role of ethics in this manner is to determine the extent to which the organization itself can influence employee perceptions regarding (...) ethics and social responsibility. Results indicate that all of the variables tested, except relativism, impacted upon one’s perceptions of the importance of ethics and social responsibility. Perceptions of the importance of ethics and social responsibility also varied depending upon country of residence with the U.S. sample having somewhat higher perceptions concerning the importance of ethics and social responsibility than their counterparts in Spain. Furthermore, when comparing the two samples, the U.S. sample had significantly higher corporate ethical values, greater enforcement of ethical codes, less organizational commitment and both lower idealism and relativism. (shrink)

This paper reports on an investigation of issues surrounding the use of ethical codes/codes of conduct in Irish based companies. Using a comprehensive questionnaire survey, the paper examines the incidence, content and enforcement of codes of conduct among a sample of the top 1000 companies based in Ireland. The main findings indicate that the overall usage of codes of conduct amongst indigenous Irish companies has increased significantly from 1995 to 2000. However, in line with prior research, these codes focus (...) primarily on issues surrounding company and employee protection as opposed to society protection. Almost half of all codes are written by company personnel or provided by head office. Revisions of codes are common but formal ongoing methods of instructing new staff about codes are not prevalent. Less than one-third of companies with codes have formal channels for reporting violations but a high percentage have formal disciplinary procedures in place for breaches of codes. (shrink)

Four years after the Panama Papers scandal, tax avoidance remains an urgent moral-political problem. Moving beyond both the academic and policy mainstream, I advocate the “democratization of tax enforcement,” by which I mean systematic efforts to make tax avoiders accountable to the judgment of ordinary citizens. Both individual oligarchs and multinational corporations have access to sophisticated tax avoidance strategies that impose significant fiscal costs on democracies and exacerbate preexisting distributive and political inequalities. Yet much contemporary tax sheltering occurs within (...) the letter of the law, rendering criminal sanctions ineffective. In response, I argue for the creation of Citizen Tax Juries, deliberative minipublics empowered to scrutinize tax avoiders, demand accountability, and facilitate concrete reforms. This proposal thus responds to the wider aspiration, within contemporary democratic theory, to secure more popular control over essential economic processes. (shrink)

The Moral Responsibility Account of Liability to Defensive Harm (MRA) states that an agent becomes liable to defensive harm if, and only if, she engages in a foreseeably risk-imposing activity that subsequently threatens objectively unjustified harm. Advocates of the account contend that liability to defensive harm is best understood as an aspect of distributive justice. Individuals who are liable to some harm are not wronged if the harm is imposed on them, and liability to defensive harm thus helps ensure that (...) harm is borne by whoever has least of an objection of justice against being burdened with it—or so advocates of the MRA insist. In this paper, I argue that liability to defensive harm is not grounded in considerations of distributive justice. While it depends on the wider societal context what allocation of a burden is distributively most just, liability to defensive harm is a distinctly localised affair. I propose that liability to defensive harm is best understood as part of the enforcement dimension of our rights to non-interference. Framing liability in this way does not invalidate the MRA. It does, however, render subjective impermissibility accounts of liability particularly promising. (shrink)

We investigate two under-explored factors in mitigating the risk of corporate fraud and regulatory enforcement against fraud, namely institutional investors and political connections. The role of institutional investors in the effective monitoring of a firm’s management is well established in the literature. We further observe that firms that have a large proportion of their shares held by institutional investors have a lower incidence of enforcement actions against corporate fraud. The importance of political connections for enterprises, whether in a (...) developed market such as the United States or an emerging market such as China, has been established by previous studies. However, we find evidence of another positive effect of political connections: they may reduce the incidence of enforcement action against corporate fraud. We also find that political connections play a more significant role in reducing regulatory enforcement incidents against non-state-owned enterprises and firms in weaker legal environments, whereas institutional ownership plays a more important role in reducing regulatory enforcement incidents against state-owned enterprises. (shrink)

Against Patrick Devlin, H. L. A. Hart rejects the enforcement of morals as such. Hart defends an expanded version of John Stuart Mill’s harm principle, but this expanded version is no more defensible than Mill’s original claim. Hart’s discussion fails to clarify what is really at stake in controversies regarding the moral acceptability of criminal prohibition of such activities as suicide and assisted suicide, recreational drug use, prostitution, and so on. Regarding the enforcement of morals as such, we (...) should acknowledge that the jury is still out. (shrink)

Individuals who have not intruded, and who do not risk intruding, upon the rights of others, normally are wronged by harmful non-consensual neurointerventions. Nonetheless, this chapter argues that neurointerventions sometimes do not wrong the intervenee; namely, when (1) suitably valid consent has been given by the intervenee, or (2) the intervenee risks non-rightfully intruding upon the rights of others and the intervention is proportionate and necessary for suitably reducing the intrusion-harms she imposes, or (3) the intervenee is _not_ psychologically autonomous (...) and the intervention is in her interests. Moreover, in the second case, it _wrongs_ an individual to impose harmful non-consensual _alternatives to neurointerventions_ (such as incarceration) when they impose greater intrusion-harm on the individual and do not achieve a greater reduction in the relevant intrusion-harm she imposes. (shrink)

Enforcement is costly, so sometimes states choose not to enforce their laws. We study this choice under rules and under standards. We show that nonenforcement of rules sends a relatively clear signal about state capacity. Regulated parties can use this information and violate law to some extent with impunity. Nonenforcement of standards sends a noisier signal, and this uncertainty may cause regulated parties to comply with law even though the state lacks capacity to enforce, a surprising implication. According to (...) conventional wisdom, standards are costlier to enforce than rules, meaning a switch from rules to standards should decrease compliance. However, we argue that standards, by obscuring the state’s capacity, can increase compliance. We identify the characteristics of standards that yield these effects, and we show that the logic generalizes to the complexity of law as well as its precision. (shrink)

Recent controversial cases of killings by police have generated competing Black Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter movements. Blue Lives Matter proponents claim that the focus on and protests in light of police killings of unarmed black persons is unwarranted. Part of this dispute turns on the moral evaluation of the killing of citizens by law enforcement. To address the dispute, I develop an account of the special moral obligations of law enforcement and show how it can be (...) applied. I argue that members of law enforcement have special moral obligations against killing citizens. The account generates moral guidance for law enforcement in a number of other ways. It implies, finally, that the Blue Lives Matter proponents fundamentally misunderstand the ethics of law enforcement. (shrink)

Kant infamously opposes not only revolution but also any resistance or disobedience by citizens that aims to compel states to reform themselves. This paper argues that, in fact, the Kantian account of the legitimate state has the resources for a distinctive justification of principled disobedience, including even violent or destructive resistance, that applies to citizens of contemporary Western democracies. When a state fails to enforce the law equally, this lack of equal enforcement can deprive some citizens of the equal (...) assurance of the security of their rights that, on the Kantian account, forms part of the very basis of the state’s claim of legitimate authority. This failure of equal enforcement of the law will thus be a defect of legitimacy and, as a result, those citizens may engage not only in civil disobedience but also in uncivil disobedience, even violent or destructive resistance, in order to compel the state to reform itself. In this context, such disobedience or resistance will count as furthering rather than undermining the project of governance by legitimate law. (shrink)

Many believe that we have duties to rescue. Many believe, further, that these duties to rescue are in principle enforceable. Some defend a third claim: we are sometimes under a duty not to rescue in sufficiently suboptimal ways, even when we are not under a duty to rescue—even when rescuing is supererogatory. My interest concerns what follows from the combination of these claims. I argue that if there are enforceable duties to rescue, as well as duties not to rescue in (...) sufficiently suboptimal ways, then those duties not to rescue in sufficiently suboptimal ways are also enforceable. And I argue these duties are enforceable only by forcing the rescuer to rescue in the optimal way. This means people lack rights against others forcing them not to rescue in sufficiently suboptimal ways, by forcing them instead to rescue in optimal ways, even when they are permitted not to rescue. (shrink)

We posit and find evidence consistent with a new mechanism of intra-firm enforcement spillovers: the leakage of scarce compliance resources across facilities within a firm. Using a facility-level panel data set of Clean Air Act (CAA) enforcement actions from 2005 to 2017, we find a facility is more likely to violate the CAA following penalties on its same-industry-same-state siblings. In contrast, there is no significant spillover across firms. We show that the intra-firm spillover is not due to changes (...) in regulatory attention or production shifting. Instead, our results suggest it may result from the redeployment of scarce compliance resources across siblings. Consistent with this mechanism, we find compliance leakage only occurs at privately held firms and facilities that lack the resources to invest in pollution prevention. The findings contribute to understanding the efficacy of environmental enforcement and have important implications for intra-firm management of environmental performance and regulatory enforcement approaches. (shrink)

Enforcing Morality is written for scholars and graduate students working in the fields of philosophy, law and political theory. It provides both a critical overview of debates on the enforcement of morality and a defense of a distinctive position on the topic.

The rising tide of corporate scandals and audit failures has shocked the public, and the integrity of auditors is being increasingly questioned. It is crucial for auditors and regulators to understand the main causes of audit failure and devise preventive measures accordingly. This study analyzes enforcement actions issued by the China Securities Regulatory Commission against auditors in respect of fraudulent financial reporting committed by listed companies in China. We find that auditors are more likely to be sanctioned by the (...) regulators for failing to detect and report material misstatement frauds rather than disclosure frauds. Further analysis of the material misstatements indicates that auditors are more likely to be sanctioned for failing to detect and report revenue-related frauds rather than assets-related frauds. In sum, our results suggest that regulators believe auditors have the responsibility to detect and report frauds that are egregious, transaction-based, and related to accounting earnings. The results contribute to our knowledge of auditors’ responsibilities for detecting frauds as perceived by regulators. (shrink)

There has been considerable interest in the literature about how professions operate in both the private and public interest. This paper examines this issue in the context of the enforcement of the professional code of conduct of a particular professional accounting association. The paper explores whether certain enforcement actions of the association suggest behaviour motivated at least partially by private interest. It then considers whether the consequences of such behaviour or practices are troubling.

Much of the original philosophical literature on immigration focused on the general question of whether borders should be open. More recently, more specific questions regarding immigration have come to the fore. This article considers an important attempt to show that consideration of one of these more specific questions, the ethical limits on the enforcement of immigration law, leads to an answer to the general question of whether borders should be open. On this indirect argument for open borders, even if (...) we assume that states have the right to exclude, the ethical limits on the means used to enforce this right imply that borders should be open. In early 2026, with President Trump using novel tactics to enforce immigration law and anti-immigrant sentiment on the rise in many countries, it may seem that this indirect argument is correct. However, using the United States’ Chinese Exclusion Cases as an example, I argue that the ethical limits on the means used to enforce the right to exclude do not imply that borders should be open. (shrink)

The first part of Chapter 2.21 of the Arthaśāstra deals with the activities of the Customs Superintendent, containing recommendations regarding the collection of customs duty. Scholars have encountered several difficulties in understanding the meaning and purposes of the activities described. An auction-like procedure described in the text has been analyzed by some as the normal operation of a market, with the payments to the treasury mentioned there taken as a hitherto-unknown market tax—the price of trading in the market. Other paragraphs (...) in the text describe seemingly self-contradictory trader actions. Interpretations of these actions have involved the imbuing of traders with complex psychological beliefs regarding the actions of other traders. This article proposes an economic model of the underlying market structure, which leads to a different and integrated reading of the text. In this reading, the author of the text, recognizing the incentive for importers to undervalue their goods, suggests the auction procedure and accom- panying penalty payments to elicit truthful revelation of importers’ valuations and to maximize customs levy collections. By comparing the procedure in the Arthaśāstra to modern-day regulations intended to combat tax evasion, the article provides early evidence of the use of sophisticated mechanisms to elicit truthful value revelation. (shrink)

In modern civil procedural law, there are different organizational structures of national civil enforcement systems. According to the principle of national procedural autonomy, each state regulates the enforcement procedure independently. Because of this, it is very difficult to talk about special systems for the civil enforcement of court decisions and other judicial or non-judicial enforceable titles at the macro level. The main reason for this is the fact that the matter of enforcement procedural law was neglected (...) for a long period of time, and the harmonization of the enforcement procedure only began to be considered in the middle of the XIX-th century. However, in general, the International Encyclopedia of Comparative Law speaks of the existence of four systems for the enforcement of court decisions and other judicial or non-judicial enforceable titles, namely: 1) enforcement of decisions by courts, 2) enforcement of decisions by private enforcement bodies (bailiff system of enforcement), 3) mixed systems of enforcement and 4) administrative systems for enforcement. The system for the enforcement of decisions and other judicial or non-judicial enforceable titles by courts without exceptions is specific to the Anglo-American procedural circle (common law system), while in the Romanian-German procedural circle of the civil law system the enforcement of decisions and other judicial or non-judicial enforceable titles can be under the competence of the courts or under the competence of bailiffs, although combined models can also be encountered. In the Scandinavian procedural circle as a part of the civil law system, is dominant the system of enforcement of decisions by private enforcement bodies or the administrative system of enforcement. The aim of this paper is to perceive the similarities and differences between national enforcement systems analyzed at the macro level. To achieve this goal, the comparative method and the analysis method will be used. (shrink)

This chapter contains sections titled: Legal Enforcement of Moral Norms against Causing Harm Legal Requirements to Perform Acts That Benefit Others Requirements to Refrain from Acts that Cause Indirect Harm to Others Requirements to Refrain from Actions That Hurt Oneself Requirements to Refrain from Acts That Offend Others Requirements to Refrain from Acts Others Believe Are Immoral References.

This essay differentiates two approaches to understanding the concept of coercion, and argues for the relative merits of the one currently out of fashion. The approach currently dominant in the philosophical literature treats threats as essential to coercion, and understands coercion in terms of the way threats alter the costs and benefits of an agent’s actions; I call this the “pressure” approach. It has largely superseded the “enforcement approach,” which focuses on the powers and actions of the coercer rather (...) than the perspective of the coercee. The enforcement approach identifies coercion with certain uses of the kinds of powers that agents need to accumulate and wield in order to be able to make significant, credible threats. Though there is considerable overlap extensionally in the instances of coercion recognized by the two approaches, the enforcement approach encompasses some uses of power to coerce that do not involve threats (in particular some direct uses of physical force). It also circumscribes which threats should be counted as coercive, though notably it provides a picture of coercion that is non-moralized in its essentials. While there may be specific purposes for which a pressure account is to be preferred, I argue that the enforcement approach better describes how coercion works, and elucidates factors that are often tacitly assumed by pressure accounts. It also is more useful for explaining the social and political significance of coercion, and why coercion is thought to have the implications commonly associated with it. In particular, I argue that it helps us understand why uses of coercion are in general a matter of ethical significance, why state authority depends on commanding a monopoly on the right to use coercion, and why being coerced may reasonably provide one a defense against being held responsible for actions one is coerced into taking. (shrink)

To my knowledge, this is the first book to try to understand the way in which enforcement rights are configured across both public and private law. It examines what it means for an enforcer to have a ‘right of action’; the way in which such rights are currently distributed between public and private enforcers across both areas of law; the devices via which their exercise is protected, moderated and controlled; and the explanations and potential justifications (deontic, moral, pragmatic, and (...) constitutional) for choosing one type of enforcer over another. It draws on a wide range of examples selected from the United Kingdom, Australia, and the United States, detailing enforcement systems from Roman and medieval times right through to those operating in the modern criminal law, competition and consumer law, environmental law, administrative law, charity law, human rights law, the law of trusts, tort, contract, guardianship, and corporate insolvency. A theme of the book is that whilst the dominant paradigm suggests that public law is (and should be) enforced publicly by the State because it is concerned with the protection of public interests—and private law enforced privately because private law protects private interests—the truth is far more complex and interesting, involving frequent overlap, exceptions, and hybridity. The book details and rationalizes the basic enforcement paradigms and their exceptions, suggests improvements to design in particular contexts, and identifies some of the key challenges for enforcement in the twenty-first century. Not the least of these is the widening gap between the State’s regulatory ambitions and its own enforcement capacity, which increases the pressure for government to revert to private enforcement strategies (or public–private enforcement ‘partnerships’) in both public and private law. (shrink)

Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies are typically first adopted as embodiments of rationality and neutrality, and only later do their moral implications receive public scrutiny. This temporal gap between adoption and moral recognition has been widely observed, yet how organizations actively sustain it remains undertheorized. This study theorizes strategic delayed moralization as the process through which organizations actively shape the timing and trajectory of AI transition from technical artifacts to morally recognized objects. We focus on ShotSpotter, an AI-powered gunshot detection system (...) used in law enforcement, analyzing a decade of organizational communications and public discourse. Combining issue management and strategic ambiguity theory, we develop a process model showing how organizations deploy evolving forms of strategic ambiguity to delay moral recognition, and how this process is ultimately constrained by societal moralization that progressively narrows the space for ambiguity. This research contributes to research on AI in society by showing how business and society interact in shaping the moral trajectory of AI. (shrink)

U.S. immigration policies and enforcement can make immigrants fearful of accessing healthcare. Although current immigration policies restrict enforcement in “sensitive locations” including healthcare facilities, there are reports of enforcement actions in such settings.

Talk of “integrity” is ubiquitous in law and legal discourse: Protecting the integrity of our political system has been cited as a basis for anti-corruption laws; preserving the integrity of the legal profession as a principle underlying the rules of lawyer ethics; ensuring integrity in policing and in the wider criminal justice system as a justification for excluding evidence obtained in violation of the Constitution; and protecting bodily integrity as a potential goal for the law of rape and sexual assault. (...) This chapter examines what integrity means in each of these contexts, what these uses have in common, and whether thinking about these various rules and doctrines in terms of integrity rather than other moral concepts leads to any practical difference in outcome. It also asks what the examination of integrity in the law can tell us about the concept of integrity in other contexts. (shrink)

abstract During the current round of fighting in the Middle East, Israel has provoked considerable controversy as it turned to targeted killings or assassination to battle militants. While assassination has met with disfavour among traditional observers, commentators have, more recently, sought to justify targeted killings with an appeal to both self‐defence and law enforcement. While each paradigm allows the use of lethal force, they are fundamentally incompatible, the former stipulating moral innocence and the latter demanding the presumption of criminal (...) guilt. Putting aside the paradigm of law enforcement which demands due process and forbids extra‐judicial execution, the only possible avenue for justifying named killings lies in self‐defence. While named killings might be defensible on the grounds that there are no other ways to disable combatants when they fight without uniforms, the costs, including the cost of targeted killing emerging as an acceptable convention in its own right, should be sufficient to view the practice with a good deal of caution. (shrink)

DNA identification methods are such an established part of our law enforcement and criminal justice systems it is hard to believe that the technologies were developed as recently as the mid-1980s, and that the databases of law enforcement profiles were established in the 1990s. Although the first databases were limited to the DNA profiles of convicted rapists and murderers, the success of these databases in solving violent crimes provided the impetus for Congress and state legislatures to expand the (...) scope of the databases with little critical examination of each expansion's value to law enforcement or cost to privacy and civil liberties.We are now entering a new stage of DNA forensics, in which successive database expansions over the last decade have raised the possibility of creating a population-wide repository. In addition, new applications of DNA profiling, including familial and low stringency searches, have been added to DNA dragnets, the use of medical samples for forensic analysis, and other measures to create a series of crucial, yet largely unexplored, second-generation legal and policy issues. (shrink)

Biometric identity systems are now a prominent feature of contemporary law enforcement, including in Europe. Often advanced on the premise of efficiency and accuracy, they have also been the subject of significant controversy. Much attention has focussed on longer-standing biometric data collection, such as finger-printing and facial recognition, foregrounding concerns with the impact such technologies can have on the nature of policing and fundamental human rights. Less researched is the growing use of voice recognition in law enforcement. This (...) paper examines the case of the recent Speaker Identification Integrated Project, a European wide initiative to create the first international and interoperable database of voice biometrics, now the third largest biometric database at Interpol. Drawing on Freedom of Information requests, interviews and public documentation, we outline the emergence and features of SiiP and explore how voice is recognised and attributed meaning. We understand Speaker Identification Integrated Project as constituting a particular ‘regime of recognition’ premised on the use of soft biometrics to disembed voice in order to optimise for difference. This, in turn, has implications for the nature and scope of law enforcement, people's position in society, and justice concerns more broadly. (shrink)

This article examines the distinction between judicial reasoning flawed by errors on questions of law, properly addressed on appeal, and errors that constitute judicial misconduct and are grounds for removal from the bench. Examples analysed are from the transcripts and reasons for decision in R v George SKQB (2015), appealed to the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal (2016) and the Supreme Court of Canada (2017), and from the sentencing decision rendered by the same judge more than a decade earlier in R (...) v Edmondson SKQB (2003). Both were sexual assault cases. In George a thirty-five year old woman with five children was tried and ultimately acquitted of sexual assault and sexual interference after she was assaulted in her home by a fourteen year old male. Striking similarities between the reasoning and language in the trial decision in George and the sentencing decision in Edmondson demonstrate entrenched antipathy for sexual assault law and the fundamental principles of justice, equality, and impartiality. This is arguably judicial misconduct, persisting despite access in the interim to many years of judicial education programming, not merely legal error. The problem does not lie with the judge alone, however. A toxic mix of misogyny and blindly zealous enforcement of the law appears to have undermined the administration of justice in George from the outset at all levels. The problems are systemic. Were this not the case, it is likely that Barbara George would not have been charged. (shrink)

This study investigates the key factors that elicit financial reporting fraud among companies in Malaysia. Using enforcement action releases issued by the Security Commission of Malaysia and Bursa Malaysia, we identify a sample of 76 firms that had committed financial reporting fraud during the period of 1996–2016. We use the fraud triangle framework and the Malaysian International Standards on Auditing 240 to identify the factors. Since the simple probit model fails to address the identification problem, we estimate our results (...) using a bivariate probit model. The new model estimates the effects of pressure, opportunity, and rationalization on the probability of fraud likelihood by disentangling the detection probability of fraud. Among several proxies used for pressure, our results suggest that aggressive tax reporting and financial difficulties increase the likelihood of fraud commission. In regard to opportunity, we find that dedicated institutional investors, independence of the board, effective audit committee, and the presence of a female on the board provide active monitoring and oversight in reducing fraud occurrence. Results for rationalization suggest that prior violations and frequent changes of external auditors increase the chances of fraud occurrence. This research offers possible insights to auditors, managers, and regulators to prevent, detect, and react to fraud. Specifically, it highlights the specific factors that may exacerbate the fraudulent intentions of firms. (shrink)

The concept of cooperative communities that enforce norm conformity through reward, as well as shaming, ridicule, and ostracism, has been central to anthropology since the work of Durkheim. Prevailing approaches from evolutionary theory explain the willingness to exert sanctions to enforce norms as self-interested behavior, while recent experimental studies suggest that altruistic rewarding and punishing—“strong reciprocity”—play an important role in promoting cooperation. This paper will use data from 308 conversations among the Ju/’hoansi (!Kung) Bushmen (a) to examine the dynamics of (...) norm enforcement, (b) to evaluate the costs of punishment in a forager society and understand how they are reduced, and (c) to determine whether hypotheses that center on individual self-interest provide sufficient explanations for bearing the costs of norm enforcement, or whether there is evidence for strong reciprocity. (shrink)

Exploring human trust in artificial intelligence (AI) in Law Enforcement domain is paramount for its ethical and effective deployment. As AI systems become increasingly integrated into society, trust ensures transparency, accountability, and fairness in their deployment. Despite the rapid increase in discussion about AI usage in law enforcement in various sectors globally, no secondary research explores that for OCEANIA, specifically in Australia. Moreover, how humans are considered in AI law enforcement is an uninvestigated area in this region. (...) This paper aims to investigate this gap by systematically exploring various applications used in this region and analyzing how human perspectives are used, and to what extent. We conducted a systematic literature review (SLR) based on 56 qualitatively selected studies to (i) classify the types, frequency, and demography of published research; (ii) explore how AI is leveraged; (iii) identify how and to what extent humans are considered in development and applications of AI in law enforcement; (iv) understand the challenges and solutions reported in this domain and worldwide. In summary, our findings point to the need for solutions to address operational and ethical issues in integrating AI into law enforcement and for unified legislation or regulations to effectively design and utilize AI in this domain. Based on the findings that highlight the important concerns in this domain, we recommend a list of future research directions. (shrink)

This research article examines the integration of predictive policing technologies within Indian law enforcement, analyzing its effectiveness in crime prevention, and its implications on community trust and civil liberties. Utilizing interdisciplinary approaches from criminology, data science, and legal studies, the paper evaluates the performance of predictive algorithms in detecting crime patterns and optimizing resource distribution. It places a significant emphasis on the ethical challenges posed by these technologies, especially concerns related to bias, discrimination, and privacy violations that disproportionately impact (...) marginalized communities. The study also critically assesses the alignment of predictive policing practices with social justice and civil rights, interrogating the implications for constitutional rights and procedural fairness. Furthermore, it investigates the legal frameworks governing the use of predictive policing in India, comparing local regulations with international best practices to suggest regulatory pathways that ensure responsible technology deployment. This article seeks to offer thorough insights into the use of predictive policing in Indian law enforcement, helping stakeholders, including lawmakers and police officers, to understand how to navigate the intricate terrain of contemporary policing while protecting citizens’ rights and safety. (shrink)

Police training plays a crucial role in the development of police officers. Because the training of police officers combines various educational components and is governed by organizational guidelines, police training is a complex, multifaceted topic. The current study investigates training at six European law enforcement agencies and aims to identify strengths and challenges of current training organization and practice. We interviewed a total of 16 police instructors and seven police coordinators with conceptual training tasks. A thematic analysis was conducted (...) and results organized in the two main themes evident across all six law enforcement agencies: organization of training and delivery of training. Results show that governmental structures and police executive boards are seen as the primary authorities that define the training framework in which police instructors operate. These administrative structures regulate distant and immediate resources, such as available training time, training facilities, equipment, and personnel. Within the confines of available resources and predetermined training frameworks, results indicate that police instructors thoroughly enjoy teaching, creating supportive and motivating learning environments, and applying their personal learning perspectives to training. Nonetheless, police instructors are critical of the level of training they are able to achieve with the available resources. (shrink)

Though Black lives continue to be lost during encounters with law enforcement, we remain far from a policy solution. While leading presidential candidates fail to offer concrete proposals, the reco...

Researchers have given some attention to women law enforcement officers' experiences and perceptions of sexual harassment. Yet, few studies have determined how the interaction of gender and race affect African American women's perception of this workplace impediment. This article explores one group of women's experiences in a U.S. sheriff's department. Interview data gathered from 65 African American women who are active and former law enforcement officers provide a comprehensive examination of how African American women in nontraditional criminal justice (...) occupations experience racialized sexual harassment. Differences in degree and frequency of harassment are found among the women in different cohorts based on their job tenure, marital status, and the race of their harassers. (shrink)

This paper provides a synopsis of the human rights enforcement in Bangladesh, which marks its 50 years in 2021 since its independence. After a theoretical background on how human rights are perceived as legal and political instruments, it critically discusses human rights provisions and explores the legal and institutional frameworks on human rights enforcement in Bangladesh—(re)construed in 50 years (1971–2021). Finally, it divulges the controversies in human rights enforcement and a roadmap to address them by making some (...) suggestions: multiple legislative, administrative, and judicial reforms are required to tackle human rights abuses to ensure punishment for the abusers and restitution for the victims. The paper concludes with the notion that the positive will of the relevant stakeholders (legislature, executive, and judiciary) is the key to upholding and protecting the human rights of Bangladeshi citizens. The significance of this paper lies in exploring the complexities associated with the laws and insular national politics, which often debars the enforcement of human rights and crucially compromises Bangladesh’s ability to empower its citizens. (shrink)

An adverse repercussion of globalisation has been the increasing presence of immigrants, many of whom are speakers of a second language. This linguistic diversity poses significant challenges for law enforcement, particularly during investigative interviews conducted by the Immigration Department. Despite the central role of interview evidence in criminal justice, there remain no structured guidelines to support triadic communication involving the investigative officer (IO), interpreter, and detainee. Findings from focused group discussions with immigration officers reveal that interviews are largely conducted (...) on the basis of personal experience, without formal training or consistent frameworks. Language barriers are often addressed informally, sometimes by using other detainees as interpreters, raising concerns about fairness, accuracy, and the protection of rights. Despite officers’ willingness to follow due process, there is minimal awareness of the application of a globally recognised interview framework, such as the PEACE model or the Méndez Principles. Language barriers, lack of formal interpreter training, and cultural misunderstandings regularly disrupt the integrity and fairness of investigative interviews. This study addresses these challenges by proposing the development of a Malaysian Investigative Interview Framework (MIIF) tailored to multilingual and multicultural contexts. Aligned with Sustainable Development Goal 16 (peace, justice, and strong institutions), the study offers a culturally sensitive, linguistically grounded framework to improve fairness, transparency, and human rights compliance in immigration investigations. The study addresses a pressing gap in forensic communication practice while foregrounding the linguistic realities of multilingual law enforcement in Southeast Asia. (shrink)

Technological developments increasingly enable monitoring and steering the behavior of individuals. Enforcement of the law by means of technology can be much more effective and pervasive than enforcement by humans, such as law enforcement officers. However, it can also bypass legislators and courts and minimize any room for civil disobedience. This significantly reduces the options to challenge legal rules. This, in turn, can impede the development of legal systems. In this paper, an analogy is made with evolutionary (...) biology to illustrate that the possibility to deviate from legal rules and existing norms is sometimes necessary for the further development of legal systems. Some room to break the law, for instance, through civil disobedience or imperfect enforcement of the law, will ensure sufficient variation. This allows for properly evolving legal systems that can continue to provide fair solutions, even when society and concepts of fairness further develop. (shrink)

This paper asks whether (human) rights enforcement is permissible given that it may entail infringing on the rights of innocent bystanders. I consider two strategies that adopt a rights-sensitive consequentialist framework and offer a positive answer to this question, namely Amartya Sen’s and Hillel Steiner’s. Against Sen, I argue that trade-offs between rights are problematic since they contradict the purpose of rights, which is to provide a pluralist solution to disagreement about values, i.e. to allow agents to act in (...) accordance with their values. I further argue that Steiner’s compensation strategy does not succeed in avoiding trade-offs so it falls prey to the same criticism. I propose a non-trade-off solution that is implicit in the accounts discussed and is more consistent with the meta-ethical framework advocated by Sen. This solution relies on an enforceable duty to share in the costs of rights enforcement hence it entails a degree of redistribution for enforcement purposes. (shrink)

Normative reflection on the ethics of migration has tended to remain at the level of abstract principle with limited attention to the practice of immigration administration and enforcement. This paper explores the implications of this practice for an ethics of immigration with particular attention to the problem of bureaucratic domination. I contend that migration administration and enforcement cannot overcome bureaucratic domination because of the inherent vulnerability of migrant populations and the transnational enforcement of border controls by multiple (...) public and private actors. The implication is that even if restrictive immigration policies are permissible in principle, the attempt to enforce them leads to injustices that make them ethically unacceptable in practice. (shrink)

Social media can indirectly have a great influence on the current law enforcement system. In principle, public participation through social media has a positive impact arising from community control on social media, one of which is as an effort in law enforcement to be more transparent and accountable. Regarding cases of domestic violence, in fact, until now, there are still many victims of domestic violence who do not speak up to voice their suffering. Even though the case has (...) gone viral on social media and has received much public attention, the cases will likely be quickly processed by law enforcement officials and escorted by the community on social media, so it is hoped that the victim will get justice. The research method used is descriptive analysis, which describes or provides an overview of the object being researched, either through data or through samples collected as they are. A form of analysis is carried out, and a conclusion is made that applies to the general public. The materials used in this study are literature, consisting of primary, secondary, and tertiary materials. The phenomenon of domestic violence (KDRT) has been increasing lately. Data collected from January to August 2024 recorded 15,490 cases of violence. Domestic violence cases dominated the report, with a total of 9,503 cases. One of the law enforcement processes in tackling domestic violence cases is also triggered by the virality that arises in social media. (shrink)

The history of ethical problems and corruption in American law enforcement is well documented. Current law enforcement training lacks a significant focus on ethics training and is in need of modifications which would include a greater emphasis on ethics education. This study drew on cognitive development theory, applied specifically to the domains of moral and conceptual development, to create and implement an educational programme for police officer trainees and college students studying criminal justice. The Deliberate Psychological Education model (...) provided the framework for this educational program designed to promote development of moral reasoning and conceptual complexity among the participants. Significant gains were achieved for participants in the Deliberate Psychological Education intervention when compared with a control group in which the participants received the ethics training in a more traditional lecture format. (shrink)