David Zarig comments on the UK government's decision to strip former Royal Bank of Scotland CEO Frederick Goodwin of his knighthood:
... perhaps Britain is showing the way with regard to imposing sanctions, but not resorting to the criminal code.
It reminds me of the debate a few years ago about shaming as an alternative sanction. There's a very interesting paper by Dan Kahan on the subject, which stands as one of the few cases I know of in which a prominent legal scholar so publicly changed his mind on such a significant issue. I also highly recommend David Skeel's paper on shaming as a corporate law sanction.
Update: The Economist's Schumpeter blog makes a good point:
Galling as it is to imagine Mr Goodwin insisting on being called Sir Fred at his local corner shop, or offering his hand to be kissed at the bus stop, no power flowed from his title. Shame is an important sanction when very well-paid people screw up, but Mr Goodwin’s reputation was already in the gutter, following the bank’s failure and a nasty, public row over his pension entitlement. Knighthood or not, he was not about to walk back into public life.
It is why commenter KG16's observation below about jail time has traction.
