WHAT IS COMPLIANCE? THE MORAL DIMENSION

In a recent paper Adams begins by noting that the French term for compliance, déontologie, is explicitly moral in character, being the logic of obligation and permissibility, but goes on to analyse compliance at length in terms of risk in a morally neutral fashion. He concludes by comparing this approach to the analysis of risk undertaken by many businesses, and notably by banks as lenders, and suggests that this is a route to gaining acceptance of the practical importance of compliance. It is preferable, he points out, to the attitude that perceives compliance as an arbitrary, externally imposed set of demands, since risks can be specified and engaged with.