Book Review: Crime, Law and Business
| Date | 01 June 1979 |
| Published date | 01 June 1979 |
| DOI | 10.1177/000486587901200208 |
| Author | Andrew Goldsmith |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
AUST &NZ
JOURNAL
OF
CRIMINOLOGY
(June 1979) 12(55-64)
BOOK
REVIEWS
55
Crime,
Law
and
Business.
Andrew
Hopkins, Australian Institute of Criminology,
Canberra
(1978)
pp
123, $3.
The
author
of
this work, Andrew Hopkins, is described in
the
cover
note as
being
asociologist/criminologist
who
at
the
time of publication of this
work
was
employed
at
the
Australian Institute of Criminology in
Canberra.
At
the
time
that
this
book
was
written, he was a Research Fellow in sociology at the
Australian National University.
The
first impression of
the
book
is
gathered
from the large
print
of
the
first
few
words,
"Crime,
Law
and
Business". A
rather
ambitious task for a m-odest
paperback
of
some
123 pages,
However,
the
reader
gains a
more
realistic notion
of
the book's contents
when
he continues onto the
words
"The
Sociological
Sources of Australian Monopoly Law". .
The
book
is
not
primarily
directed
at
lawyers, or for
that
matter
anyone
particular interest
group.
Dr
Hopkins
openly
states
that
it is a sociological study
of the sources of
what
is
more
commonly
known
as Australian
trade
practices
law, as
opposed
to
the
trade
practices themselves.
Correspondingly
it
would
be
fair to say
that
this
book
will be of little interest to practitioners in related
professions such as
law
and
economics,
and
of greater interest to those persons
concerned
with legislation
and
the
law
generally as indicia of social
and
political
processes in Australian society.
The
theme
or
aspired
direction
of
the
book
is
best
expressed in
the
author's
own
words
located
in
the
preface:
"The
real value of
law
to sociology lies
...
in
viewing
law
as a manifestation of social
phenomena
which
are
not
otherwise
clearly
apparent."
Dr
Hopkins goes on in
Chapter
One
to outline notions
of
value
and
interest as they relate to the creation
of
law.
The
relevant philosophies of
Durkheim, Marx
and
Engels,
Pound
and
others are
presented
and,
as such,
constitute aconcise
and
useful
account
of
core
concepts
which
frequently find
expression in criminological writings
dealing
with
"white
collar crime"
and
broader
aetiological theories, as well as in political
and
economic
literature.
The
following four chapters go on to
deal
individually
with
what
the author
sees as the four
landmarks
in Australian
trade
practice law.
These
are
the
1906
Act, the 1965 Act,
the
1971 Act
and
the
1974 Act
with
the
amendments
implemented
by
the Fraser
Government
in 1977.
Chapter
Six, entitled
"The
Sources of Antitrust in Australia"
attempts
to
chart
and
explain,
albeit
somewhat
briefly
and
confusingly,
the
change in focus
of
trade
practices legislation from
that of
producer
to
consumer
protection.
However,
within this chapter,
under
the
heading
"The
criminalization of restrictive trade", is an interesting account of,
and
explanation for, the
way
in which the various statutes
dealt
with
infringementof its
provisions, contrasting in particular the 1974 Act
inplemented
by
the Whitlam
administration
with
the earlier enactments
and
the subsequent 1977 amendments.
The
ideas
presented,
while not novel,
assume
aparticular
contemporary
relevance
in the light of Australian politics in
the
last
decade.
In so far as the
author
refers
largely to
Hansard
and
the
newspaper
reports
for his sources
of
information for his
propositions, it is
apparent
that the
book
would
be
of
special interestto students of
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