Journal of Dental Research, Vol 75, 836-840, Copyright © 1996 by International & American Associations for Dental Research Online Journals
Process and procedures for dealing with misconduct: a necessity or a nightmare?
D. N. Bersoff
Villanova Law School, Pennsylvania 19085-1682, USA.
After a scientific and professional association has developed a code of
ethics, it must develop a set of procedures to investigate, adjudicate, and
enforce the code's provisions. The author, who is a scientist and an
attorney, describes and discusses the fundamental legal principles that
must be adhered to so that complaints against members can be adjudicated
fairly, objectively, and with little legal risk to the association. The
paper defines the concept of due process as it applies to private,
non-profit associations and provides an example of how one professional and
scientific association actually goes about adjudicating claims of
misconduct against its members. It also informs associations about the
liability risks that may confront them when they enforce a code of ethics,
offers suggestions of how to manage those risks successfully, and concludes
by cataloguing some of the financial burdens enforcement entails.
