FINAL CALL: ECONOMIC CRIME AND CORPORATE COMPLIANCE SESSIONS - LSA ANNUAL MEETING SAN FRANCISCO 2026

Photo by Joshua Earle on Unsplash

We are delighted to share the work being carried out for the Law and Society Annual Meeting, which will take place in San Francisco, California, from May 28 to 31, 2026. The research group, Economic Crime and Corporate Compliance Collaborative Research Network (CRN41), serves as a multi-disciplinary global forum for scholars and practitioners. Our network examines the intricate landscape of economic misconduct and the crucial role of organizational measures in mitigating these risks. We foster a dialogue that extends from traditional economic crimes to broader unethical and socially harmful corporate behavior, focusing inter alia on governance mechanisms, compliance programs, the crucial role of whistleblowers, and the impact of emerging technologies on ethical business practices. In this spirit, we are excited to announce that CRN41 has organized several sessions for the upcoming event in San Francisco (please see the details below). We would like to take this opportunity to thank the more than 30 experts and scholars who have decided to join the work of our research group. We are confident that this will be a truly exciting and inspiring event, bringing together a diverse and global community of participants from around the world. The richness of perspectives and experiences represented promises to make this gathering both intellectually engaging and genuinely memorable.

🙋‍♂️Invitation to Participate🙋‍♂️

There are still a few places available, so we invite interested scholars, experts, and practitioners to join this fantastic event. If you wish to participate, please contact Prof. Costantino Grasso 

• In your email, please specify which session you wish to participate in.

• If you are interested in joining a potential paper session, please include a proposed paper title and a 200-word abstract.

❗️Important Conditions for Participation❗️

Please note two critical points before expressing your interest:

1. Attendance is in person only. The Law & Society Association has confirmed that remote or virtual participation will not be available for this conference.

2. No funding is available. The association does not provide funding for attendance. All participants are responsible for their own travel, accommodation, conference registration fees, and LSA membership fees.

3. Paper Sessions Note. Unlike the Roundtable Sessions, participation in the Paper Sessions requires the submission of a draft paper, even if it is an early version. This submission must be completed before the conference, following the internal deadlines set by the research group, with a planned submission window in April.

‼️ Urgent Deadline ‼️

Time is short, as the conference program will be finalized soon. This is a very brief window of opportunity to join our sessions. All participation requests must be sent by the evening of Thursday, October 16. We look forward to collaborating with you in San Francisco!

📝 CRN41 Planned Sessions 📝

PAPER SESSION 1 Holding the Giants Accountable: Challenges in the Age of Multinational Corporations

This session will explore the significant and evolving challenges faced in all forms of enforcement action—from public prosecutions to private litigation—against multinational enterprises (MNEs) and how they have established  “sanctuaries” to shield themselves from accountability. Panelists will dissect the complex obstacles that both public authorities and private claimants encounter when seeking to hold powerful corporate actors liable for misconduct, ranging from criminal acts like economic crime and human rights violations to civil wrongs such as large-scale financial dereliction toward creditors, tortious conduct causing environmental or consumer harm, anticompetitive market abuses, and systemic failures in corporate governance that sideline stakeholder interests. The discussion will address how MNEs use their immense resources as well as their intricate corporate structures to create refuge from liability and frustrate evidence gathering, often compounded by the involvement of the acquiescence of state power. A focus will be a critical evaluation of how MNEs have been granted legal benefits and fundamental rights traditionally designed to protect natural persons, or even more vulnerable individuals, distorting what was originally intended only as a sanctuary for the latter. The discussion will reflect on whether extending these advantages to sophisticated and powerful legal entities generates a distortion of justice. The session aims to foster a dialogue on potential legal and policy reforms needed to level the playing field and ensure fair accountability in a globalized world.

PAPER SESSION 2 Beyond the Label: Irresponsible Behavior and Regulatory Failures in the Food Industry

This session provides a critical analysis of the irresponsible commercial practices within the food industry, a sector of crucial importance to global public health and societal well-being. For human beings, food has been traditionally intertwined with the idea of sanctuary: a source of safety, nourishment, and well-being for society. However, powerful corporations are dismantling this safe harbor, prioritizing profit over health through a range of calculated strategies. Panelists will explore deceptive marketing and labeling, examining how companies exploit regulatory loopholes to market ultra-processed and sweetened foods without transparently disclosing their health implications. The session will also discuss corporate hypocrisy in practice, analyzing how food giants strategically deploy corporate social responsibility messaging as a shield to cultivate a public image as partners in health, while their core business models continue to promote and depend on the consumption of unhealthy food. Furthermore, the panel will expose the science of craving, detailing how corporations use sophisticated formulas to engineer foods with precise combinations of salt, sugar, and fat, which are designed to be highly pleasurable and encourage repeat consumption, without a proper evaluation of the long-term related risks. Finally, the session will offer a critical assessment of the inadequacy of current regulatory models, scrutinizing the effectiveness of primary government interventions in curbing these detrimental corporate practices.

PAPER SESSION 3 Guardians or Enablers: Lawful Organizations and Criminal Networks

This session explores the critical and often ambiguous interconnections between formally lawful organizations and criminal networks, examining their profound impact on the socio-economic fabric of the state. These relationships are not always clear-cut and can determine whether key societal structures function as a sanctuary for public and economic well-being or as a gateway for illicit activities. Within this framework, papers may explore the dual role that lawful organizations play. The analyses may focus on organizations that act as guardians of the economic and social order, functioning as institutional sanctuaries against criminal infiltration. This line of inquiry could examine, for instance, entities that actively work to recover assets expropriated by criminal enterprises, reinforce market integrity, and restore public trust. Adopting a different perspective, other contributions may dissect the processes by which lawful organizations become accomplices to or facilitators of criminal activities. They could investigate the legal, socio-economic, and structural vulnerabilities that allow legitimate organizations to be infiltrated or co-opted, and investigate how such a corrupting alignment leaves society with no sanctuary from within, exposing it to corruption and exploitation. By bringing together these perspectives, the session aims to foster a nuanced dialogue on the pressures that shape these relationships and the regulatory strategies needed to strengthen societal resilience. ROUNDTABLE SESSION 1 Stone Fortress or Paper Castle? Debating the Current Reality of Corporate Compliance

The modern quest for corporate integrity centers on a complex interplay of architectural design, human expertise and judgment, and, most recently, technological innovation. This session convenes a comprehensive debate to critically examine how these pillars combine in the effort to build a corporate “sanctuary” of integrity, questioning whether the result is a resilient, safe harbor or a fragile, and potentially misleading, illusion. Our discussion of architectural design will provide an opportunity to scrutinize the foundational blueprints of corporate compliance and governance. This may involve re-examining dominant frameworks like the Three Lines Model in the wake of major corporate scandals. Questions might be raised about whether such structures remain fit for purpose or if their inherent “cracks” call for a fundamental re-engineering to restore clear accountability. Within the dimension of human expertise and judgment, the discussion could turn to the profound paradoxes faced by internal gatekeepers (e.g., compliance officers, auditors, and corporate investigators). The panel might explore the contextual triggers that compel these professionals to bypass established channels, the precarious boundary between corporate duty and whistleblowing, or the systemic failures that can leave them vulnerable to retaliation. Finally, the conversation will address the impact of technological innovation. The debate may extend to the dual potential of Artificial Intelligence (i.e., both as a powerful tool promising an impenetrable fortress of automated compliance and a source of new vulnerabilities), ultimately questioning whether algorithmic solutions offer genuine safe harbors or dangerous illusions. ROUNDTABLE SESSION 2 Criminalizing Retaliation: Advancing Legal Remedies for Whistleblower Trauma

Retaliation against whistleblowers is not merely an ethical or administrative issue. It can inflict profound psychological harm, career destruction, and, in some tragic cases, death by suicide. While civil remedies exist, they are insufficient to address the full scope of harm or deter malicious organizational behavior. This roundtable discusses legal and empirical analysis into whether whistleblower retaliation should be treated as a criminal offense, particularly when it results in serious psychological injury. Retaliation not only affects mental health but often leads to financial loss and long-term unemployment, reputational damage, and disability, creating a cascade of negative effects that may warrant criminal accountability.  Existing data and legal frameworks will inform a policy recommendation that reclassifies retaliation as prosecutable harm analogous to coercive or violent crime. #Accountability #BusinessEthics #CCO #Compliance #Corporate #CorporateAccountability #CorporateCompliance #CorporateCrime #CorporateCrimeObservatory #CorporateGovernance #CorporateLaw #CorporateResponsibility #Corruption #Crime #CriminalLaw #CSR #EconomicCrime #Enforcement #ESG #Ethics #FinancialCrime #Food #FoodIndustry #HumanRights #Justice #Law #LawAndSociety #LegalReform #OrganizedCrime #Regulation #RiskManagement #SocioLegal #WhiteCollarCrime #Whistleblowing #Whistleblower