Christopher Hodges, Professor of Justice Systems, will deliver the 2017 Max Watson Annual Lecture to present his proposals to support an ethical basis for business practice and regulation. Professor Hodges will present his research into the concept of Ethical Business Regulation (EBR), which aims to foster a business culture of mutual engagement, respect, learning, and constant improvement, based on social trust.

He will ask:
How do we stem the flow of corporate scandals (recently Rolls Royce, VW), save money on regulators (Better Regulation), and improve effective ‘compliance’, whilst observing the new 'growth duty'?
Does the answer lie in deterrence, or behavioural psychology/economics, or structures (such as the Primary Authority scheme or ‘regulated self-assurance’), or ‘no blame' cultures (such as aviation safety), or embedding ethical values?
The lecture will be a wide-ranging tour d’horizon of current theories and enforcement practice, and apply socio-legal empirical analysis to the evidence, with answers that some will find challenging.

It will build on Professor Hodges' ideas previously published by the UK Government in their Review of Ethics for Regulators conducted by the Committee on Standards in Public Life, and in his FLJS Policy Brief, Ethical Business Regulation.