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Criminal Law as a Means of Regulation: The Interplay between Economic, Legal, and Political Rationalities in the Prohibition of Insider Trading and its Enforcement
A comparative study

Csaba Győry (Hungary)

Ph.D. Project

Criminal Law as a Means of Regulation: the Interplay between Legal, Economic and Political Rationalities in the Regulation of Corporate Crime

  • Subject of the Research

    Despite the processes of unification, there are many elements in the structure, organization and regulation of financial markets that show remarkable perseverance. These differences appear not only in the “law in the books” (density of regulation; scope of criminalization of the breaches of financial regulation; procedural powers of enforcement entities, etc.), but also in the “law in action” (enforcement intensity; allocation of resources within regulatory and enforcement agencies; exercise of prosecutorial discretion, etc.). In this research, the focus lies on the scope of criminalization of the breaches of financial regulation, and on the relationship of civil and criminal enforcement. The basic research question is the following: what accounts for the differences in the scope of criminalization of the breaches of securities regulation, and for the differences in enforcement intensity? Our hypothesis is that these are the result of the interplay of at least three factors: 1, the political and economic environment of financial regulation as a whole; 2, the status of criminal law and the relationship between civil/administrative and criminal enforcement; 3, institutional and organizational practices, recruitment processes, attitudes of officials in regulatory authorities and law enforcement agencies. In our research we have selected insider trading as a case study. Selecting a set, well-defined and relatively autonomous (in terms of interconnectedness with other parts of securities laws) element of regulation will enable us to cut “vertically” through all levels of analysis.

  • Theoretical Framework

    In the analysis of the interconnectedness of financial markets and financial regulation, the framework is based on multiple paradigms in political economy. We wish to draw on those approaches in international political economy (IPE) which theorize the notion of “structural power” to describe the socio-economic, class and institutional dimensions and sources of the state and the market. Yet in the particular case of a US-German comparison, where certain elements of market structures do seem to show a remarkable persistence despite interventions to “internationalize” them, some aspects of the “varieties of capitalism” paradigm in comparative political economy (CPE) could also be useful for analysis. When it comes to research questions whose ultimate subject is the law, however, two of the weaknesses of both approaches prove to be particularly problematic: both share a tendency to ontologize the distinction between markets and institutions, as well as a focus on formal state institutions which tends to disregard the social sources of state capacity. We think, however, that each legal system has an inner logic and a moment of inertia which is partly constituted by its dogmatic structure and partly by its application by the authorities and the courts. In this respect, in our research project we also wish to draw on the system theory approach in legal sociology, especially on the works of Gunther Teubner.

  • Methodology

    The first phase of the research involves the analysis of the development of insider trading regulation and case law in the context of the evolution of financial markets in Germany and in the USA. This also encompasses the analysis of all insider trading cases in the USA and Germany (both civil and criminal) from the period 1980-2010 (USA) and Germany (1995-2010) to establish trends in "everyday enforcement". In the second phase of the research, we will conduct interviews with officials at regulatory agencies, prosecutors, attorneys and compliance professionals. In this phase, in line with the methodological approach of "polymorphous engagement", a method applied in the ethnographic research of closed professional elites where access could be a problem, documents such as policy statements and court submissions will also be analyzed.

  • Project Web page

Research Interests and Goals

Restorative justice, responsive regulation, corporate crime, regulation and governance, theoretical criminology

Awards and Scholarships

  • DAAD research scholarship, University of Hamburg, 2007-2008
  • IWM Institut für die Wissenschaft des Menschen (Boston/Vienna), Summer School on Politics and Philosophy, 2004

Publications

(selection)
  • Györy, Csaba: Bevezetés a Kriminológiába. Budapest, 325 p., 2010 (forthcoming).
  • Csaba, Györy: Eroszakos devianciák. In: Aáry-Tamás Lajos, Joshua Aronson (ed(s).): Iskolai veszélyek. Budapest, Complex Kiadó, 2010.
  • Csaba, Györy / Orsolya Bolyki, Klára Kerezsi, Katalin Parti, Eszter Sárik: Hungary. In: Josine Junger-Tas / Ineke Haen-Marshall, Dirk Enzmann, Martin Killias, Majone Steketee, Beata Gruszczynska (ed(s).): Juvenile Delinquency in Europe and Beyond. Dodrecht-Heidelberg-London-New York, Springer, 2009.
  • Györy, Csaba / Klára Kerezsi (ed.), József Kó: Longitudinális kriminológiai vizsgálatok és alkalmazásuk lehetoségei Magyarországon. Budapest, Egészséges Ifjúságért Alapítvány/Budapest Fováros Önkormányzata, 129 p., 2009.
  • Györy, Csaba: Ein pragmatischer Idealist: John Braithwaite. In: Monatsschrift für Kriminologie und Strafrechtsreform, 2008, Issue/Volume 5, p. 317 - 336.
  • Györy, Csaba: Eroszakos bunözés a fiatalkorúak körében. In: Klára Kerezsi (ed(s).): Látens fiatalkori devianciák. Fiatalkori devianciák egy önbevalláson alapuló felmérés tükrében. OKRI/ELTE ÁJK, 2008.
  • Györy, Csaba: A válságtendenciákon túl. Kortárs német viták az újkapitalizmusról. In: Replika, 2007.
  • Györy, Csaba: Restorative Justice, Responsive Regulation and the Governance of Crime. In: Márta Dezso (ed(s).): Acta Facultatis Politico-Iuridicae Universitatis Scientiarum Budapestinensis de Rolando Eötvös Nominatae. ELTE University Faculty of Law, 2007.

Memberships

  • Member of the Editorial Board, Replika (Hungarian Social Science Quaterly) since 2004
  • Member of the Board, European Society of Criminology (editor of the ESC newsletter)

Lectures

  • 22. April 2012

    The Comparative Political Economy of Financial Crimes Enforcement: Germany and the US
    Insitut für Rechts – und Kriminalsoziologie

    Location: Vienna, Austria

  • 8. February 2011

    Legal During the Boom, Criminal After the Crisis? Law Enforcement Reactions to the Financial Crisis. A Preliminary Assessment
    Max Planck Institute of Foreign and International Criminal Law

    Location: Freiburg, Germany

  • 17. November 2010

    Financial versus Political Cycles: The Changing Legitimation of Criminal Policy Towards Corporate Crime
    American Society of Criminology, Annual Conference 2010

    Location: San Francisco, USA

  • 28. September 2007

    Violence and Socio-Economic Status Among Juveniles in Hungary. Some Remarks on the ISRD 2 Results
    European Society of Criminology, Annual Conference 2007

    Location: Bologna, Italy

  • 26. August 2006

    Violent Crime among Juveniles in Hungary. A First Evaluation of the Self-Reported Delinquency Study
    European Society of Criminology, Annual Conference 2006

    Location: Tübingen, Germany

Curriculum vitae

Since July 2009 PhD Candidate of the International Max Planck Research School on Retaliation, Mediation and Punishment (IMPRS REMEP) at the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law in Freiburg i.Br., Germany
2008 - 2009 assistant professor of criminal law, Department of Criminal Law, Széchenyi University Deák Ferenc School of Law / Lecturer in Criminology, ELTE University Faculty of Law, Department of Criminology
2007 - 2008 guest researcher, University of Hamburg, Institute of Criminological Research
2006 - 2007 legal expert, Amnesty International Hungary
2005 - 2008 postgraduate studies at the ELTE University Faculty of Law, Department of Criminology
2005 J.D. (ELTE University, Faculty of Law)
1999 - 2005 Studied law, sociology and philosophy in Berlin (Humboldt Universität zu Berlin) and Budapest (ELTE University)