The study of criminal law by lawyers has traditionally been confined to a consideration of general principles of criminal law and of specific crimes, the material or substantive criminal law.

The purpose of my dissertation is to examine jurors' evaluation of auditor negligence in response to auditors' use of natural language processing (NLP). To test my research objective, I conducted a 2x2 between-subjects experiment with 175 jury-eligible individuals. In the online experiment, I manipulated whether the audit team analyzes contracts with NLP software or by having human auditors read the contracts. I also manipulated task complexity as complex or simple. The dependent variables include a binary verdict variable and a scaled assessment of negligence. This dissertation makes several contributions to the accounting literature and practice. First, it contributes to the recent juror literature on emerging technologies by providing evidence that jurors attribute higher negligence assessments to auditors when auditors use NLP to examine contracts than when human auditors examine contracts. I also find that auditors' use of NLP leads to jurors' higher perceived causation, which, in turn, increases jurors' assessments of auditor liability. Second, this study answers the call of other researchers to examine the relationship between task complexity and negligence in different settings. I also find a marginally significant interaction effect of the use of NLP compared to human auditors to perform audit testing that is greater for complex tasks than for simple tasks. Third, this dissertation provides new insights for practitioners and accounting firms when using emerging algorithm-based AI technologies such as NLP. As more AI technologies are used in audit practice, the findings will provide helpful insights for audit practitioners to consider when they utilize technologies to design and implement audit procedures.

This thesis first builds a framework to impose professional liability on Chinese auditors for misstatements and then tests the framework by field work. Auditor liability has been a recurring puzzle. This thesis intends to analyze the complex legal relationships among the players in typical auditing litigations, dissect the arguments from both the auditors and plaintiffs, and develop doctrines and check points that could help the litigation parties to evaluate the merits of their claims, to predict the litigation outcomes, and to mitigate litigation risks in the Chinese setting. The author adopts a utilitarianism perspective and utilizes the theory of “contract and status”. The main methodologies employed include: case report analysis, legal reasoning, interviews, and questionnaire survey. Comparison across jurisdictions and interdisciplinary perspectives have been utilized all through the thesis. In the first part, the author draws a portrait of the Chinese auditing profession, and then moves to synthesize the previous literature on audit liability from both accounting and legal perspectives. After this, a significant part of the thesis is devoted to analyzing the typical UK reported cases since the late 19th century including the Caparo case, Bannerman case and others to discover the UK laws regulating auditor liability. In the following chapter, the recent trends of legislation in the UK and the company law harmonization practice of the EU are reviewed. Then, based on a survey on current Chinese law and an analysis on the feasibility of transplanting the UK and EU practice into China, the author develops a proposed framework integrating doctrines and practical checking points about eligible plaintiffs, duty of care, wrongdoings, standards of care, and damage calculation and allocation in typical litigations. In the second part, the proposed framework is dissected into questions, which are examined through 38 interviews with auditors, regulators, financial statements preparers, and lawyers, and 470 survey questionnaires completed by auditors and members of the financial community, along with questions about responsibility and the technical abilities of auditors. The data from the field produces a cross-section picture of the perceptions of stakeholders on auditor liability. Statistical analysis shows there are significant differences between the auditor and non-auditor on the majority of the related issues, such as auditor’s responsibility, eligible plaintiff, and others. The empirical analysis gives general support for the proposed framework.

In contemporary legal writing and discourse, Lord Atkin’s neighbour principle is unloved. The now dominant view is that the neighbour principle performs no practical function since it is a mere descriptive label of the very different factual circumstances in which a duty to take reasonable care exists. It is the central contention of this paper that the neighbour principle is – in fact – invaluable as aid for the principled development of the tort of negligence. As this paper will show, the neighbour principle furnishes a common perspective that renders possible uniform determinations of analogical similarity and difference between novel categories of relations and established forms of negligent liability. The principle thus works in tandem with analogical reasoning to ensure objectivity in the delineation of the proper ambit of negligence law’s protection. Accordingly, the principle is an essential in ensuring a principled law of negligence whereby like cases are treated alike.

In contemporary legal writing and discourse, Lord Atkin’s neighbour principle is unloved. The now dominant view is that the neighbour principle performs no practical function since it is a mere descriptive label of the very different factual circumstances in which a duty to take reasonable care exists. It is the central contention of this paper that the neighbour principle is – in fact – invaluable as aid for the principled development of the tort of negligence. As this paper will show, the neighbour principle furnishes a common perspective that renders possible uniform determinations of analogical similarity and difference between novel categories of relations and established forms of negligent liability. The principle thus works in tandem with analogical reasoning to ensure objectivity in the delineation of the proper ambit of negligence law’s protection. Accordingly, the principle is an essential in ensuring a principled law of negligence whereby like cases are treated alike.

This thesis is a tentative application of Foucault’s archaeological method to the English common law. The project is an attempt at explaining and demonstrating the specific attributes of the method in terms of a contribution to an understanding of the law as both continuous and discontinuous. From the understanding applied in this thesis, an application of the archaeological method requires a careful examination of the monuments of a discourse. The monuments that are examined in this project are a number of negligence law judgments. The authors of the monuments are seen as the sum of the practices that constitute them. That is, in this application of the method to the law, the judges are not considered as authors, instead, the judgments they write are seen as reflecting the practices of the legal discourse. The most fundamental of these discursive practices, from the perspective applied in this thesis is the repetition of past legal statements in the production of judgments. In the understanding of law adopted in this project, cases are treated as sites within which judges choose from a number of possible legal statements made by preceding judges. The common law, then, is seen as representing a process in which statements by particular judges in specific cases are valorised, primarily through repetition, until the alternative utterances are largely, but never completely, excluded. The application of the archaeological method to these negligence decisions demonstrates the operation of the discursive practice of repetition. The application provides a framework for appreciating the way in which the law can change without losing its continuity and legitimacy. The project examines cases between 1750 and 1972 and demonstrates that, despite apparently radical changes in the articulations of liability, from the writ system to the duty of care, the law has maintained its structure through the reproduction of the discursive practices that constitute members of the legal profession.

This study addresses the use of attitude and personality variables as predictors of compensation and award in a personal injury suit. Safety seeking behavior and attitudes toward tort reform are introduced as case-specific factors that may predict this verdict decision. Two hundred registered voters were surveyed on scales measuring attitudes toward safety, tort reform, and psychiatrists. Subjects also indicated their demographic characteristics and the degree of compensation and amount of award they would render the plaintiff in a civil suit. Results indicated attitudinal variables were more predictive of compensation and award than were demographic variables. The implications of these findings are discussed.

A presente tese propõe um estudo teórico dos perfis estrutural e funcional da culpa a partir do novo marco normativo introduzido no direito brasileiro pelo parágrafo único, do artigo 944 do Código Civil. Por meio de uma análise da disciplina normativa da culpa na seara da responsabilidade civil extracontratual, demonstra-se, neste trabalho que, a despeito do incremento das hipóteses de responsabilidade objetiva, a culpa ainda detém papel relevante no Direito Civil brasileiro. Além de atuar como fator de surgimento do dever de indenizar, a culpa também desempenha hoje a importante função de critério para fixação do valor da indenização. Os estudos realizados comprovam que esses diferentes papéis da culpa lhe imprimem contornos normativos distintos, não sendo mais possível hoje a adoção de uma teoria unitária para a descrição desse instituto jurídico. Ao contrário de seu perfil na esfera das regras de imputação de responsabilidade, onde é apreciada de forma abstrata e objetiva, no plano em que atua como critério de definição da extensão da indenização, a culpa assume feições concretas e pessoais. O estudo foi realizado mediante pesquisa bibliográfica, que compreendeu levantamento de doutrina, jurisprudência e legislação pertinentes. / This thesis aims to conduct a technical study of the structural and functional profiles of negligence based on the new regulatory framework introduced into Brazilian Law by the sole paragraph of Article 944 of the Civil Code. By examining the regulations regarding negligence in the field of torts, it is shown in this paper that, notwithstanding the rise in the number strict liability cases, negligence still plays a major role in Brazilian civil law. Besides serving as a factor for creation of the obligation to pay indemnity, negligence also presently has the important function of being a criterion for setting the amount of the indemnity. The studies conducted prove that these different roles of negligence provide them with distinct regulatory profiles, such that it is no longer possible these days to adopt a unitary theory for description of this legal institute in Brazil. Contrary to its profile in the sphere of rules for imputing liability, where it is considered in an abstract and objective manner, on the plane on which it serves as a criterion for defining the extent of damages, negligence takes on concrete and personal features. This study has been carried out on the basis of bibliographic research that encompassed surveys of applicable legal doctrine, case law development and legislation.

A presente tese propõe um estudo teórico dos perfis estrutural e funcional da culpa a partir do novo marco normativo introduzido no direito brasileiro pelo parágrafo único, do artigo 944 do Código Civil. Por meio de uma análise da disciplina normativa da culpa na seara da responsabilidade civil extracontratual, demonstra-se, neste trabalho que, a despeito do incremento das hipóteses de responsabilidade objetiva, a culpa ainda detém papel relevante no Direito Civil brasileiro. Além de atuar como fator de surgimento do dever de indenizar, a culpa também desempenha hoje a importante função de critério para fixação do valor da indenização. Os estudos realizados comprovam que esses diferentes papéis da culpa lhe imprimem contornos normativos distintos, não sendo mais possível hoje a adoção de uma teoria unitária para a descrição desse instituto jurídico. Ao contrário de seu perfil na esfera das regras de imputação de responsabilidade, onde é apreciada de forma abstrata e objetiva, no plano em que atua como critério de definição da extensão da indenização, a culpa assume feições concretas e pessoais. O estudo foi realizado mediante pesquisa bibliográfica, que compreendeu levantamento de doutrina, jurisprudência e legislação pertinentes. / This thesis aims to conduct a technical study of the structural and functional profiles of negligence based on the new regulatory framework introduced into Brazilian Law by the sole paragraph of Article 944 of the Civil Code. By examining the regulations regarding negligence in the field of torts, it is shown in this paper that, notwithstanding the rise in the number strict liability cases, negligence still plays a major role in Brazilian civil law. Besides serving as a factor for creation of the obligation to pay indemnity, negligence also presently has the important function of being a criterion for setting the amount of the indemnity. The studies conducted prove that these different roles of negligence provide them with distinct regulatory profiles, such that it is no longer possible these days to adopt a unitary theory for description of this legal institute in Brazil. Contrary to its profile in the sphere of rules for imputing liability, where it is considered in an abstract and objective manner, on the plane on which it serves as a criterion for defining the extent of damages, negligence takes on concrete and personal features. This study has been carried out on the basis of bibliographic research that encompassed surveys of applicable legal doctrine, case law development and legislation.

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