On Friday 21 February 2020, J.D. Jaspers will defend his PhD dissertation, entitled: ‘Cooperation Against the Law. Criminological study of the social organisation of business cartels ‘.
- Promotor
- Promotor
- Date
- Friday 21 Feb 2020, 13:30 - 15:00
- Type
- PhD defence
- Space
- Senate Hall
- Building
- Erasmus Building
- Location
- Campus Woudestein
This study deals with the shadow side of cooperation; a type of cooperation that is forbidden by law because of its negative effects, namely business cartels. Business cartels entail cooperation between firms in the same or similar area of economic activity trying to avoid competition between them by controlling the market through e.g. fixing prices, dividing customers or rigging tender procedures. Conflicts between cartelists, cartelists cheating on agreements or cartelists denouncing the cartel to the authorities all form internal threats to the stability of business cartels. Such internal threats are more pressing today, now that cartel agreements are subject to administrative, private or criminal legal sanctions globally. Despite the process of cartel criminalisation in recent decades, cartels that lasted for years, sometimes decades are still detected today. This raises the question how and why cartels manage to persist, despite increased efforts to discourage them. This research focuses on the question how cartelists control their cartel, and how enforcement strategies by cartel authorities influence those interactions. The question is: how do cartels manage to endure in illegality?
The public defence will take place at the Senatehall, 1st floor of the Erasmus Building, Campus Woudestein. The ceremony will begin exactly at 13.30 hrs. In light of the solemn nature of the ceremony, we recommend that you do not take children under the age of 6 to the first part of the ceremony.
