Criminal Misconduct in Office: Law and Politics
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| Anteprima |
Should
the criminal law be used to deter and punish corruption in politics:
from employing family members at public expense to improper spending on
elections, lobbying, and cronyism? How did so many MPs avoid facing
charges after the 2009 government expenses scandal? In this book, Jeremy
Horder tackles these questions and more. As well as offering the first
treatment of the history, philosophy, and politics of the application of
the offence of misconduct in office to Members of Parliament in England
and Wales, Horder explains how political corruption might be dealt with
in future, and how politicians could be held accountable for their
actions so that they are deterred from betraying the public's trust. Use
of the criminal law should not be the sole or even the main way to
remedy all corruption in politics. Nevertheless, for too long the
offence of misconduct in a public office has had an ambiguous status in
the political realm. If we are to preserve the good health of government
it must be seen as a constitutional fundamental. A charge of misconduct
provides a way in which corrupt conduct on the part of legislators can
be punished with an appropriate label, holding them to account for the
misuse of power by reference to the standards of ordinary people. When
other - civil law or regulatory - means prove insufficient, it should be
possible for ordinary members of a jury, and not for Parliamentarians
or other officials, to decide whether, for example, the expenditure of
public money on legislators' private income and benefits amounts to a
criminal abuse of the public's trust. This book offers an authoritative
and accessible account of a 'bottom-up' (jury standards-led), as opposed
to a 'top-down' (officials applying their own standards), approach to
the role of the criminal law in constitutional contexts.
