Deferred Prosecution Agreements: Assessing the Effective Regulation of Economic Crime

Description

Since 2013, the deferred prosecution agreement has reshaped how England and Wales confronts corporate crime, allowing the Serious Fraud Office and the Crown Prosecution Service to resolve allegations against companies without the collateral damage of a full criminal trial. But more than a decade in, a harder question remains largely unanswered: are DPAs actually working?

This book offers the first sustained assessment of DPA effectiveness against the legislative and policy goals the regime was built to serve. Drawing on Maria Mousmouti’s effectiveness test and the wider scholarship on regulatory design, it moves from theory to practice, examining not only the DPAs that were concluded, but the cases where prosecutors declined to offer one, to reveal what actually separates a justifiable agreement from a rejected one. A comparative look at how the United States, France, and Australia have approached (or resisted) similar mechanisms situates the English and Welsh regime within a global debate over how to punish corporate wrongdoing without destroying the innocent employees, shareholders, and communities caught in the blast radius.

Rigorously researched and clearly argued, this is essential reading for scholars and students of corporate criminal law, compliance and regulatory practitioners, policymakers weighing reforms to economic crime enforcement, and anyone following the ongoing debate over whether DPAs represent smart regulation or a quiet retreat from accountability.

About the Author

Mohammed Subhan Hussain completed his MPhil in Law at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (IALS), University of London. His research and professional interests centre on deferred prosecution agreements and corporate financial crime, with a broader interest in commercial litigation encompassing insurance and reinsurance, banking and finance, shipping and marine, aviation, and sanctions, including complex multi-jurisdictional disputes.