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The International Legal Framework Against Corruption: Achievements and Challenges

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The International Legal Framework Against Corruption: Achievements and Challenges THE INTERNATIONAL LEGAL FRAMEWORK AGAINST CORRUPTION: ACHIEVEMENTS AND CHALLENGES JAN WOUTERS, CEDRIC RYNGAERT† AND ANN SOFIE CLOOTS‡ The article provides a tour d’horizon of the current international legal framework against corruption, which has made substantial progress over the last two decades. Nevertheless, both the legal framework and its implementation continue to face challenges, some of which must be addressed to ensure tangible improvements in the struggle against corruption. Part II of the article sketches the genealogy of the international legal framework regarding corruption, which was strengthened by the Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions, adopted after United States pressure that followed the passing of the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Part III outlines the achievements of the main international anti-corruption instruments, complementing the discussion by highlighting their main deficiencies. Special attention is paid to the United Nations and Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development instruments, as well as to the Council of Europe’s monitoring mechanism, the Group of States against Corruption. Asia remains remarkably absent from the discussion, as the last continent without a regional anti-corruption convention. Anti-corruption initiatives within the international financial institutions and the most important private initiatives are also discussed. Part IV of the article identifies thematic challenges to the current global anti-corruption framework: definitional problems and cultural gift-giving practices; jurisdictional challenges regarding foreign corruption practices; asset recovery; the link between corruption and good governance and that between corruption and human rights; and private sphere corruption. CONTENTS I Introduction .............................................................................................................. 2 II A Genealogy of the Global Anti-Corruption Framework ......................................... 3 III International Anti-Corruption Instruments ............................................................. 12 A The United Nations Convention against Corruption .................................. 12 1 Background .................................................................................... 12 2 Ratification Status .......................................................................... 13 3 Scope: Prevention, Criminalisation and International Cooperation .................................................................................... 14 4 Monitoring ..................................................................................... 16 5 Independent Domestic Anti-Corruption Authorities ...................... 17 B European Instruments ................................................................................. 18 1 European Union ............................................................................. 18 2 Council of Europe .......................................................................... 21 C Other Regional Anti-Corruption Instruments ............................................. 23 1 Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development .................................................................................. 23 Professor Dr Jan Wouters is Jean Monnet Chair ad personam EU and Global Governance, Full Professor of International Law and International Organizations and Director of the Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies and Institute for International Law at KU Leuven. † Professor Dr Cedric Ryngaert is Associate Professor of International Law at KU Leuven and Utrecht University. ‡ Ann Sofie Cloots is Research Fellow at the Research Foundation Flanders and PhD candidate at the Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies and Institute for International Law at KU Leuven. 1 2 Melbourne Journal of International Law [Vol 14 2 Inter-American Convention against Corruption ............................ 25 3 African Instruments ........................................................................ 26 D Anti-Corruption Initiatives in International Financial Institutions ............. 27 1 World Bank .................................................................................... 27 2 Other Multilateral Financial Institutions ........................................ 30 E Private Initiatives ....................................................................................... 30 1 Transparency International ............................................................. 30 2 The International Chamber of Commerce ...................................... 32 3 Other Fora ...................................................................................... 33 IV Challenges .............................................................................................................. 33 A Definition ................................................................................................... 33 1 ‘Corruption’ and ‘Bribery’ ............................................................. 33 2 Facilitation Payments ..................................................................... 35 3 The Local Law Exception .............................................................. 36 4 The Scope of Corrupt Acts Covered by the International Anti-Corruption Instruments .......................................................... 39 B Extraterritorial Jurisdiction over Foreign Corrupt Practices ....................... 44 1 The Jurisdictional Provisions of the Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions and the United Nations Convention against Corruption ........................................ 45 2 The United States Foreign Corrupt Practices Act: the Benchmark ..................................................................................... 48 3 Jurisdiction over Corruption in the United Kingdom ..................... 50 4 Jurisdiction over Corruption in Belgium ........................................ 51 5 Jurisdiction over Corruption in the Netherlands ............................. 53 6 Assessing the Exercise of Extraterritorial Jurisdiction over Corruption: Over- or Under-Regulation? ....................................... 54 C Asset Recovery ........................................................................................... 57 D Corruption and Good Governance .............................................................. 62 E Corruption and Human Rights ................................................................... 66 F Corruption in the Private Sphere ................................................................ 72 V Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 75 ‘The adoption of the United Nations Convention against Corruption will send a clear message that the international community is determined to prevent and control corruption. It will warn the corrupt that betrayal of the public trust will no longer be tolerated ... The adoption of the new Convention will be a remarkable achievement. But let us be clear: it is only a beginning’. — Kofi Annan1 I INTRODUCTION The present contribution provides an overview of the current international legal framework against corruption. The goal is not to describe each existing 1 United Nations Convention against Corruption, opened for signature 31 October 2003, 2349 UNTS 41 (entered into force 14 December 2005) Foreword (‘UNCAC’). 2013] The International Legal Framework against Corruption 3 instrument in great detail; this exercise has been done elsewhere.2 The aim is rather to give a tour d’horizon of the genealogy and the main achievements, features and objectives of the existing legal framework and to discuss the challenges it faces. Part II of this article sketches the genesis of the international legal framework regarding corruption. Part III outlines the main international anti-corruption instruments. Special attention will be paid to the United Nations and Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (‘OECD’) instruments, as these have proven especially influential. Next to these instruments, we will refer to the Group of States against Corruption (‘GRECO’), the monitoring mechanism of the Council of Europe (‘CoE’); some other regional instruments outside Europe; anti-corruption initiatives within international financial institutions; and a few noteworthy private initiatives. In Part IV, specific challenges to the current global anti-corruption framework will be assessed: definitional problems; jurisdictional challenges regarding foreign corruption practices; asset recovery; the interface between corruption and good governance and that between corruption and human rights; and private sphere corruption. At the end, we provide a number of conclusions and present a number of discussion points. II A GENEALOGY OF THE GLOBAL ANTI-CORRUPTION FRAMEWORK On 9 December each year, the world celebrates International Anti-Corruption Day. The fact that such a symbolic day exists (and immediately precedes Human Rights Day on 10 December) reflects the international community’s increased recognition of the importance of anti-corruption measures. Various factors have contributed to this, including the heightened awareness of the concrete impact of corruption. Attention has turned, for example, to: the financing of terrorist acts;3 the covering up of narcotics trafficking;
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