Civil pecuniary penalties are an increasingly common feature of regulatory legislation such as the Commerce Act 1986 and the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013. They have been both welcomed as a pragmatic “third way” between purely civil remedies and criminal charges and condemned as incompatible with human rights and the principles which underpin the criminal justice system. This lecture considers both sides of the debate and whether it is possible to reconcile the competing views. Presented by Jenny Cooper, who graduated from Otago in 1995 and now practices in Auckland as a commercial barrister with specialist expertise in company and securities law and fair trading and competition law.