| CODE | MRT5202 | |||||||||
| TITLE | Ethical Issues in the Regulation of Business | |||||||||
| UM LEVEL | 05 - Postgraduate Modular Diploma or Degree Course | |||||||||
| MQF LEVEL | 7 | |||||||||
| ECTS CREDITS | 5 | |||||||||
| DEPARTMENT | Moral Theology | |||||||||
| DESCRIPTION | This study-unit deals with practice not theory. Who regulates the market and why? Who supervises the regulators and how are they accountable? The study-unit examines practical issues in the area of Business Ethics in the field of Regulation, which is rarely examined in its own right as a subject. There has been an explosion of Regulators and Regulation. It looks at Regulators at work, with a particular focus on actual cases and situations in Malta and abroad. What are their ethical obligations and what does the law say? The study-unit will revolve on the discussion of true case studies which may include the following: 鈥� The Thalidomide - harmful pill 鈥� The Ford Pinto 鈥� a fatal car 鈥� Stanley Adams 鈥� a Maltese whistle-blower 鈥� Volkswagen 鈥� fraudulent device 鈥� Covid-19 鈥� various issues 鈥� Various local regulatory failures and bad governance reported in the media 鈥� The Standards Commissioner 鈥� the oversight of politicians The relationship between the Regulator and the regulated firms, and the ethical implications and consequences of their inter-action, shall be examined. Some of the questions that shall be addressed include: 鈥� What ethical issues face Regulators? 鈥� What is an ethical Regulator? 鈥� Is a good Regulator necessarily an ethical regulator? 鈥� Should Regulators trust the regulated entities? The study-unit is therefore concerned with applied Business Ethics focussing largely on the obligation of public supervisory institutions to safeguard the community and to serve the public and safeguard their rights, health, safety, and to safeguard the environment, and the moral implications arising from these obligations. Accordingly, the main thrust is to identify and analyse the various ethical questions that may arise from the duties and responsibilities of public regulatory authorities and to enquire what makes a good regulator and what makes a bad regulator. The study-unit will examine how regulation is carried out in Malta and identify which public authorities regulate which activities and comment of their behaviour as evidenced and revealed in the media. Regulation has intrinsic underlying ethical objectives. Where regulators actively assume moral leadership of the sector under their oversight, they would more likely acquire a legitimacy edge. Ethical behaviour is acquired through training and example until it becomes second nature. The following issues will be relevant: 鈥� How is business regulated and why? 鈥� Who regulates the market and how. 鈥� Should business activities be restrained? 鈥� Can we allow business to regulate itself? 鈥� What would an unregulated market look like? 鈥� In the long term ethical conduct should be good business 鈥� Ethics and legal compliance are not the same. 鈥� Ethics demands compliance with laws which promote fair dealing 鈥� What are the ethical duties of a Regulator? 鈥� How can Regulation be unethical? 鈥� What do we mean by self-regulation, non-regulation over-regulation? 鈥� What factors can influence Regulators ' behaviour? 鈥� What are the ethical duties of Regulators? 鈥� The ethical problem of incompetent Regulators 鈥� In whose interest do public authorities work; who do they protect and who do they represent? 鈥� The notion of regulatory capture and its implications and consequences - influence, bribery, corruption. Is capture ethical? 鈥� The ethical dimension of regulatory and institutional failure 鈥� The ethical dilemmas of whistleblowing and the State's duty to protect whistle-blowers Study-unit Aims: - To analyze the relationship between law and ethics and to develop sensitivity to the ethical dimension of business activity; - To better understand the role of regulators and the various moral risks involved in regulated, self-regulated and non-regulated business activities; - To consider various case studies on business behaviour and evaluate the moral implications. Learning Outcomes: 1. Knowledge & Understanding: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Assess and address the moral dimension of business and the ethical challenges that such activities have presented in the past and will continue to present in the future; - Understand the inter-playing roles of law, regulation, ethics and business. 2. Skills: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Assess and anticipate the practical impact and significance of the need for moral vigilance in business operations and corporate governance in day to day experience. Main Text/s and any supplementary readings: Books: - Ross Cranston, Regulating Business: Law and Consumer Agencies, Oxford Socio-Legal Studies, 1979. - George Gillingan, Regulating the Financial 福利在线免费 Sector, Kluwer Law International, 1999. - Stanley Adams, ROCHE versus ADAMS, Jonathan Cape, 1984. - David Lewis (Ed), Whistleblowing at Work, The Athlone Press, 2001. - Cicero, Selected Works, trans. Grant M Penguin, (1960) (especially chapter 4). - Valance E., 鈥淏usiness Ethics at Work鈥�, Cambridge, 1995. Papers and articles: - David Fabri, "No more heroes any more? The Whistleblowing Dilemma: Recent Developments and a fresh look at some conceptual issues", Id-Dritt, Vol XX, Law Students' Society, University of Malta, 2009. - David Fabri, "My Brother鈥檚 Keeper - The Genesis and Ethical Basis of Consumer Law (Notes from a Maltese Perspective)鈥�, Civil Society Project Report 2007, in European Documentation and Research Centre, Peter G Xuereb (ed), University of Malta. - Handouts and other relevant materials and will be circulated during the study-unit. |
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| ADDITIONAL NOTES | Pre-requisite qualifications: A good undergraduate degree or equivalent | |||||||||
| STUDY-UNIT TYPE | Lecture and Independent Study | |||||||||
| METHOD OF ASSESSMENT |
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| LECTURER/S | David Fabri |
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The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints. Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice. It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2025/6. It may be subject to change in subsequent years. |
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