Alternatives to Adversarial Processes in the Regulation of Professional Ethics

Abstract

Professional regulatory bodies, including ethics committees, association boards, and government licensing authorities, oversee the ethical behaviour of professionals, specifically monitoring their use of power. A key element of such regulation is the hearing of ethics complaints against practitioners. This generally involves adversarial type processes which attempt to echo the legal system. The use of these adversarial models of investigation and discipline is called into question here and other possibilities are outlined.