Thesis (doctoral)--Univrsität Tübingen.

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität Rostock.

Thesis (doctoral)--Ruprecht-Karl-Universität in Heidelberg.

Thesis (doctoral)--Friedrich-Alexander-Universität zu Erlangen.

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität Erlangen.

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität Rostock. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [v]-vii).

This thesis is about the fine, an everyday transaction of an involuntary nature, resulting from the finding or deeming of guilt by a criminal court. Existing literature and official statistics are reported to describe the use of the fine in Canada and abroad with particular emphasis on the situation in the Province of British Columbia. The fine is found to be a common disposition for property and motoring offences and even for crimes of violence against persons in most of the countries reviewed with the notable exception of the United States which utilizes the fine for motoring offences but for little else. Based on the available evidence, the fine appears to be steadily increasing in use in Western European countries and in England but this is not strictly the case in British Columbia. The overall proportion of offenders receiving fines decreased recently in B.C. due it seems to the imposition of short term jail sentences rather than the fine for provincial statute offences. This is believed to result from "get tough", law enforcement policies directed at the more serious motoring offenders. Recent data on the use of the fine in the remaining provinces of Canada are not available. The fine is examined also in terms of its efficiency and effectiveness as a sanction and the extent to which it demonstrates both economy, as a social control technique, and notions of social justice and humaneness. Payment of the fine with little or no enforcement is the norm, due in large part to the practice of fining "good risks", i.e., casual offenders likely able to afford the fine. For the same reason, the recidivism rate of fined offenders is lower than that for offenders placed on probation or imprisoned. The most pressing problem associated with the fine is the utilization of imprisonment for offenders who default in payment. This practice is not only costly but raises the issue of the social justice of the fine since those imprisoned are more likely to have no means of paying their penalty. For this reason, the day-fine system which calculates the size of the fine according to both the seriousness of the offence and the offender's ability to pay is considered as a scheme which upholds notions of fairness and justice. The fine exercises the least surveillance and consequently control over the behaviour, and indirectly the attitudes, of offenders. As a result it is one of the least expensive sanctions to administer, particularly when the practice of imprisoning defaulters is curtailed. The fine and its administration by the justice system is considered also within the context of the structural mechanisms, functions, and finances of the state. The fine affords a concrete example of the dynamics of the state as it attempts to balance its major, albeit often contradictory, functions of accumulation, legitimation, and coercion. / Arts, Faculty of / Sociology, Department of / Graduate

This thesis is a study of monetary sanctions, in particular the fine, set in the broader context of the relationship between punishment, money and legal order. The purpose is to analyse the way in which money enters into penal relations. The thesis is divided into two main parts, the first of which begins by identifying a paradox in the structure of contemporary, sociological explanations of punishment. This paradox may be rendered thus; why is the fine much used but little studied? Why do contemporary sociological accounts endeavour to explain the penal system with little or no reference to the most commonly used of all penal sanctions, the fine? A number of factors accounting for this paradox are suggested, but most important of all, it is argued, the paradox reflects a broader, cultural estrangement of punishment from money. By this is meant that money is unable to fulfil our cultural expectations of what punishment ought really to be like. The nature of this process of estrangement is explored via an analysis of why, in serious crimes like rape, fines are seen as inappropriate sanctions. It is argued that this process of estrangement captures both an historical process and a contemporary reality. Historically, money was once used to deal with the full range of crimes and offences. However, for reasons which are explained, this relationship has been shattered. In the modern penal system, punishment and money are estranged. The phenomenon of estrangement is clearest only at a certain level of the penal system - that level at which grand claims for its legitimacy are debated and discussed. Beneath this, the system relies on the fine in an increasing number of crimes and offences. The second part of the thesis uses concrete, empirical data, gathered by a variety of methods, to explore the place of the fine in the contemporary Scottish criminal justice system. The explanation is carried out in the light of the more general themes developed in the first part of the thesis. By analysing official data, it is shown that fines are now used in fairly serious crimes, particularly the property ones. The thesis then turns to an examination of how a group of sentencers, sheriffs, use the fine. This analysis is conducted by using data collected by the interview method. The thesis concludes by considering the significance of its findings for the contemporary sociology of punishment and for our understanding of modern penal practice.

In 2002, Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which requires firms to assess internal controls and report internal control weaknesses. My study examines the causes and consequences of material weaknesses (MW) reported under Section 302 of SOX. First, I investigate whether firms that report MW are associated with less effective audit committees and boards of directors. Using 184 firms that reported MW and a matched-pair sample of control firms, I find that firms with lower audit committee financial expertise, smaller audit committees, and lower board independence are more likely to have MW. Second, I examine whether the managerial labor market imposes penalties on top management, audit committees, and boards of directors for internal control failures. I find that MW firms have significantly higher turnover of their audit committee members and outside directors than the control firms following the MW detection. Audit committee members and outside directors in the MW firms also lose more outside directorships than their counterparts in the control firms. Additional analyses show that the extent of reputational penalties increase with the severity of the MW detected. Third, I examine whether the MW firms improve their governance structures upon the MW detection. The results indicate that MW firms experience greater improvement in their governance structures than the control firms. By the second year following the MW detection, the MW and control firms no longer differ in terms of audit committee independence, audit committee financial expertise, audit committee size, and board independence. Last, I examine whether the market reacts positively to the improvement in governance structures. I find a positive relation between the two-year buy-and-hold abnormal returns and the MW firms improvement in audit committee size and board independence. This result is consistent with the improvement in governance structures restoring investor confidence in financial reporting.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine, from a comparative perspective, the legal treatment of stipulated damages clauses in the common law and in French civil law. First, we will see that this clause has endured a turbulent legal history in both legal traditions. The French civil law and the common law have reflected at great length on the appropriate legal response to such clauses---essentially, on whether, and if so when such clauses should be enforced or prohibited. / Second, this thesis will analyse the practical roles that these clauses have played in the two legal traditions, which will illuminate further differences between their respective approaches. Emphasis will be placed on the difficult question, which has arisen in both legal systems, of defining the notion of stipulated damages clauses and of differentiating them from other institutions, such as deposit clauses. / Third, the evaluation of these two legal systems will facilitate the contention that the approach of the French civil system is, in most cases, preferable to the solution adopted by the common law. Nevertheless, it will be seen that each legal tradition could benefit considerably from careful examination of the other's treatment of these clauses.