The Space Between Laws: The Problem of Corporate Crime in a Transnational Context

TLDR: In this article, the authors argue that the study of corporate transgression by transnational corporations can legitimately embrace not only violations of law, but also violations of international codes and other injurious actions that are analogous in severity and source to violations of these codes.

Abstract: During the last two decades transnational corporations (TNCs) have significantly expanded their operations in the Third World. However, in many developing nations legal controls over injurious corporate activities have not grown commensurately. As a result, TNCs operating in developing host nations have engaged legally in a variety of injurious actions that would have been violations of criminal, regulatory, or civil law in their home countries. The differences in the laws of home and host nations, and the ability of TNCs to influence the legal climate in host countries, renders the laws derived at the level of nation-states an unsatisfactory basis for determining the scope of criminological research on TNCs. Attempts within the United Nations to redefine the meaning of corporate crime by creating codes of conduct for international business, and efforts by U.S. business interests to limit these codes, are examined as a specific case in the current debate over what constitutes corporate transgressions. Utilizing the concept of critical reflexivity, we argue that the study of corporate transgression by TNCs can legitimately embrace not only violations of law, but also violations of international codes and other injurious actions that are analogous in severity and source to violations of these codes.