Conrad Black Case
In this essay I will talk about law in the capitalist society, and how it affects the people. In order for me to do that, I will give some background information of the historical aspects of law as a social phenomenon. I will start by outlining the major themes in the news story of the Conrad Black trial and than comparing and contrasting them. The thesis of this paper will be the idea of law in the capitalist society and the relationship between the power and the law. I will critically evaluate the scandal in which the media Baron Conrad Black was accused of what is known as white color crime. I chose this case, because I really want to show that law is not something to be taken lightly, and that no matter what illegal doings you have committed, the law system will prevail. Also this case will show the relationship between class, power and the state in modern capitalist society. This case has a lot of relationship to another trial that happened several years ago with the Russian oil baron, Mikhail Hadorkovsky, where he was in a trial versus the state and Vladimir Putin (the president). I will go into this relation later in the paper.
I will begin by giving some background facts about the Conrad Black. He is a well-known media baron, who has been accused on fourteen charges including several counts of fraud, perks violations and obstruction of justice. He has already been found guilty on four charges, with the final sentencing happening in November 2007. He is now free on bail, but I am stressing the word free, for he cannot leave the US. Black was a Canadian citizen up until 2001, when he gave up his citizenship, to take up the title of a lord in Britain. He is facing charges that could potentially have him sentenced to thirty-five years in jail. "He's now a convicted felon convicted of very serious fraud charges and convicted of obstructing justice," said Patrick Fitzgerald, (National Post, July 13th 2007. The US government has demanded that he pay fines...
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