BUS452 Corporate Compliance and Enforcement (E)

• Topics

  This course examines corporate crime, compliance, and enforcement in modern market economies, with a focus on how firms, regulators, and individuals interact under legal, economic, and ethical constraints. Students will learn why harmful business practices persist despite regulation, how incentives and organizational structures shape corporate behavior, and how misconduct is detected, sanctioned, and managed in practice. The course combines insights from law and economics with real-world cases to analyze collusive and non-collusive misconduct, regulatory enforcement (criminal and non-criminal), private claims, and settlement mechanisms. Ethics is integrated throughout the course as a matter of professional judgment: students are trained to assess responsibility, legality, and consequences in situations where rules are unclear, enforcement is strategic, and interests conflict. The course is relevant for students preparing for careers in the private or public sector, including leadership, advisory, compliance, regulatory, and investigative roles, and emphasizes decision-making in challenging real-world contexts at the national and international level.

  Students should expect to be challenged analytically and professionally, and to engage actively with cases where there are no clearly correct answers.

• Learning outcome

  Upon course completion, the student will be able to:

  Knowledge

  • Explain why corporate crime distorts business operations, markets and development
  • Explain the main forms of corporate misconduct and the incentives that give rise to them.
  • Describe how criminal, administrative, and civil enforcement systems operate and interact
  • Understand the role of regulatory authorities, courts, and private actors in enforcing business norms across jurisdictions.

  Skills

  • Handle acute situations where crime is discovered within an organization
  • Analyze corporate misconduct cases using legal, economic, and ethical frameworks
  • Distinguish between collusive and non-collusive wrongdoing and assess appropriate enforcement responses
  • Evaluate compliance systems, whistleblowing mechanisms, and enforcement strategies from both public and corporate perspectives
  • Assess the consequences of detected misconduct, including sanctions, civil liability, settlement, and reputational effects.

  General competence

  • Exercise informed judgment in ethically challenging business situations
  • Communicate clearly about legal risk, compliance, and enforcement to both legal and non-legal audiences
  • Navigate situations where legal permissibility, economic incentives, and ethical considerations diverge
  • Understand the concept of compliance systems in private and public organizations and its norm-generating function

• Teaching

  The course is organized into three parts and consists of 12 lectures (2x45 minutes each) and two  mandatory sessions for case work presentations. 

  • Part I introduces the institutional and analytical framework: corporate misconduct, enforcement systems, liability, and the interaction between firms and regulators.
  • Part II focuses on prevention, examining incentives, compliance systems, gatekeeper roles, and detection mechanisms in both collusive and non-collusive misconduct.
  • Part III addresses the management of consequences once misconduct is detected, including sanctions, settlements, and strategic responses.

  The following teaching methods are used:

  • Lectures introducing core concepts, theoretical frameworks, and institutional design
  • Structured plenary discussion integrated into the lectures
  • Case-based teaching, where students apply legal, economic, and ethical analysis to concrete business situations
  • Multiple choice test to motivate students to learn core concepts halfway into the course 
  • Group-based learning and student presentations 
  • Digital support materials (e.g., short videos and reading guidance) where relevant

  The course is built around active learning. Students are expected to prepare in advance and engage actively in discussion, classification of misconduct, and evaluation of decision-making alternatives in situations where legal rules, economic incentives, and ethical considerations may diverge.

• Credit reduction due to overlap

  There is no overlap with other courses.

• Compulsory Activity

  45 minutes Multiple choice test at school by the end of part II of the course (approved/ not approved):

  • The test focuses on concepts and institutional design rather than technical detail.
  • Themes addressed in lectures: Corporate liability, corporate rights, enforcement systems.

  Previously approved compulsory activities remain valid.

• Assessment

  Group project and presentation (30%), to be completed in groups of 3-5 students.

  • Contents of the group work: Business case (crime, ethics, compliance and enforcement)
  • A brief written summary (1-2 pages) of the presentation, to be submitted two days prior to the group presentation.
  • Final group presentation and discussion (in English)

   3 hour digital school exam (70%). The exam must be answered in English. 

  Course evaluation will be kept close to material presented and discussed in class.

• Grading Scale

  A-F

• Literature

  To be listed in Leganto.

  Core anchor readings

  • 2-3 pieces per part of the course; roughly 150-200 page in total

  Lecture-specific readings

  • 1-2 readings per lecture

  Optional deepening readings

   

  Note: There will be no full textbook for the course

  For each lecture, there will be reading guidance and a hierarchy of importance

• Permitted Support Material

  One bilingual dictionary (Category I) 

  All in accordance with Supplementary provisions to the Regulations for Full-time Study Programmes at the Norwegian School of Economics Ch.4 Permitted support material https://www.nhh.no/en/for-students/regulations/https://www.nhh.no/en/for-students/regulations/ and https://www.nhh.no/en/for-students/examinations/examination-support-materials/https://www.nhh.no/en/for-students/examinations/examination-support-materials/