Handbook of Compliance & Integrity Management' provides a scientific underpinning for the practice of compliance. The compliance discipline in companies and financial institutions has grown exponentially in recent years. In spite of a plethora of works on compliance, the academic discipline on compliance is still in its infancy. This book, which is the result of the researches conducted by the Post-Doctoral Education in Compliance and Integrity Management of the VU University Amsterdam, examines the subject from such crucial and varied perspectives (...) as ethics, behavioural science, risk management, accounting, and European and international law. Much more than a critical approach to the existing practice of supervision, it provides a wealth of information, guidance, and valuable insights into the day-to-day work of compliance officers. (shrink)

In Campbell Soup Co. v. Allstate Insurance Co. ), the United States District Court for the Western District of Michigan, Southern Division, held that a health plan's coordination of benefits clause, covered under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, does not preempt a similar no-fault automobile insurance clause in the absence of irreconcilable conflict. The court found that ERISA's policy of shielding plans from unanticipated claims could only be furthered when the plan had expressly disavowed such claims. Because the ERISA (...) plan in this case did not specifically subordinate itself to the no-fault policy, the district court found that the no-fault COB clause controlled. However, to escape this ruling, ERISA plans need only redraft their COB clauses specifically to disclaim liability in case of conflict with provisions of no-fault insurance policies. This caveat substantially limits the scope of the court's ruling. (shrink)

An attempt to give a comprehensive scientific account of the creative process. Humor, scientific discovery and art are all understood as dependent upon the act of "bisociation," the spontaneous intersecting of two or more previously unrelated frames of reference or "matrices." The first half of the book propounds this theory; the second half attempts to give its physical and psychological underpinnings. Though he fails to give any definite answer to how and why the bisociative act takes place, Koestler's erudition, insights (...) and considerable skill as a writer are impressive.—S. C. H. (shrink)

The Morality of Civil Disobedience is a clear, direct, well-written analysis of the concept of civil disobedience. Professor Hall proposes a minimal definition of civil disobedience on which he then builds a theoretical framework alleged to be morally neutral. He concludes by presenting a substantive method for amending the present legal system to permit a more direct responsiveness to moral issues. The minimal defining characteristics are "the illegality of the act, and the alleged moral nature of its justification." This eliminates (...) as constitutive elements such factors as: agent’s willingness to be arrested and punished, use of nonviolence, full publicity of act, etc. Several benefits accrue. First, this minimal definition permits cogent and useful distinctions between legal injustices and immoral laws, disobedience and revolution or rebellion, disobedience and crime. Second, a morally neutral definition allows a theoretical formulation which can encompass a number of diverse moral stances. Third, by limiting the defining characteristics to the above, the author can effectively distinguish between the concept of civil disobedience and what counts as grounds for justification. Further, by introducing the notion of prima facie obligation as necessary elements of justification, Professor Hall gives the problem a flexible and useful framework. The analysis is coherent and relatively complete. Whatever moral commitments are presumed within this theory seem minimal, easily acceptable to the reader, and quite necessary for any kind of substantive program. The author has made extensive and judicious use of legal as well as philosophical works in this field. He has defended and explicated his theoretical proposals with numerous relevant case studies. These practical illustrations tend not only to clarify the issue, but to direct the reader’s attention to dealing creatively with a contemporary problem of paramount political importance. An extensive bibliography refers the reader to important source materials from both legal and philosophical works.—S. C. (shrink)