Skilling’s martyrdom: The case for criminalization without incarceration

This paper restricts itself to crimes involving corporate fiduciaries taking bad decisions at the expense of shareholders (corporate governance offenses). The arguments do not apply to fraud as moral wrongfulness exists in that case. To the extent that the actions covered by this paper are blameworthy, I argue that this determination must be disentangled from punishment. Disentanglement of blame from deserts suggests a via-media between criminalization and decriminalization - criminalization without incarceration. Accordingly, the legal process stops at the determination of guilt. The paper advances the criminalization debate because it does not get bogged down in the irreconcilable quarrel about whether corporate governance misbehavior ought to be criminalized for deterrence, retribution, or rehabilitation reasons, and whether it achieves any of these purposes. For these offenses, I argue that whichever theoretical justification underpins the decision to criminalize, imprisonment must not follow conviction. The conviction, despite the lack of incarceration, and the consequential sanctions likely to be imposed on the wrongdoer are sufficient to satisfy the three main justifications for criminalization. In appropriate cases, disgorgement of the offender’s gains will aid in the achievement of these objectives. The model proposed by this paper would yield significant savings by reducing prison costs. It would also allow the state to take advantage of the disproportionate cost/burden of conviction on corporate governance offenders. Owing to the offenders’ high earning potential, deterrence can be achieved at lower cost by conviction alone because the cost of incarceration does not have to be borne by the state whereas the destruction of capacity to generate similar (or indeed, any) income has to be suffered by the offender even without going to jail. If the cost of incarceration is the same for offenders with different earning capacities, imprisoning those with very high earning capacities is a waste of social capital if the objectives sought to be achieved by incarceration can be achieved through other means. Further, the cost of a conviction can be predicted with sufficient certainty in the case of white-collar criminals by looking at their earnings history, and in many cases this can be a significant sum. Unlike the common criminal who may not have a similarly predictable earning capacity and therefore suffer the same extent of monetary loss from a conviction, this loss ought to serve the deterrence function without the need for the state to spend money imprisoning the offender. In addition to loss of earning capacity, clawing back ill-gotten gains significantly adds to disutility. The paper is set out as follows: Part II briefly outlines the scope of the wrongs tackled as stemming from the principal-agent relationship in corporate law, and the inability of the law to overcome effectively problems resulting from the collectivization of the principal in that relationship. In Part III, I argue that conviction without imprisonment is a second-best alternative to decriminalization in cases where the conduct is blameworthy, and results in non-consensual harm. Part IV demonstrates the disutility caused by conviction alone to show that the objectives of criminalization can be satisfied without the need for imprisonment. Part V asserts that consequential sanctions like shaming add to the disutility of conviction. Part VI ties the thesis to Skilling’s conviction for bad business judgment devoid of moral wrongfulness to illustrate the problems with conflating blame and punishment. Part VII concludes.

The court jew Lippold : tale of a sixteenth century martyrdom

narrated by George Alexander Kohut

A Study of the Martyrdom Altarpiece

"This paper will explore an unstudied fifteenth-century English alabaster altarpiece referred to as the Martyrdom Altarpiece. Based on dated and current scholarship, this analysis postulates two scenarios of the object's history. The first scenario postulates the Martyrdom Altarpiece as being commissioned by the Carthusian order. This position is based on stylistic and iconographic readings of the object that correlate with Carthusian analogs. These interpretations are strengthened by documentation sold with the Martyrdom Altarpiece during its 1978 auction sale. Scenario two argues that the Martyrdom Altarpiece's origins are not Carthusian, furthermore suggesting that the object is a composite or truncated piece"

Narratives to be recited at the commemorative assembly (majlis) held on the 10th and 20th days after the martyrdom anniversary of Imām Ḥusain : manuscript, 1890?

Title provided by cataloger.

Various Shiite devotional texts to be recited in religious assemblies (majālis) commemorating the events leading to the martyrdom of the Shii Imam Ḥusain b. ʻAlī (d. 860)] : manuscript, 1900?

Various Shiite devotional texts to be recited in religious assemblies (majālis) commemorating the events leading to the martyrdom of the Shii Imam Ḥusain b. ʻAlī (d. 680). Each majlis (there is twenty) begins with a synoptic heading. The beginning of 17th majlis suggests that some of these texts are based on Mahdī b. Abī Zarr al-Kāshānī an-Niraqī's "Muḥarriq al-qulub (a Shiite history of the martyrs of the Prophet's family).

The martyrdom and miracles of Saint George of Cappadocia.

Mode of access: Internet.

Tapestry of the fifteenth century : representing the martyrdom of St. Paul the Apostle, with the arms of Guillaume de Hellande, Bishop-Count of Beauvais /

Mode of access: Internet.

Part of a Wing of an Altarpiece with the Martyrdom of St Lucy

Master of the Figdor Deposition; 4 ft. 4 1/8 in.x 3 ft. 4 3/64 in.; oil on panel

Reliquary Casket with Scenes from the Martyrdom of Saint Thomas Becket

2 11/64 in.x 1 27/32 in.; gilded silver with niello and a glass cabochon set over a tinted foil

Reliquary Casket with Scenes from the Martyrdom of Saint Thomas Becket

2 11/64 in.x 1 27/32 in.; gilded silver with niello and a glass cabochon set over a tinted foil