Unscrewing the Inscrutable: The UK Bribery Act 2010

Abstract

UNSCREWING THE INSCRUTABLE and hospitality payments, are unprecedented in their jurisdictional reach and cannot realistically be enforced. We conclude by commenting on concerns relating to the Bribery Act's violations of due process and the European Convention on Human Rights. The Bribery Act cannot hope to effect, in a legitimate way, Parliament's goal of ending bribery in the United Kingdom and elsewhere. I. WITH ALL DELIBERATE DELAY: THE SORDID SAGA OF THE ULTIMATE BIRTH OF THE UK BRIBERY ACT This part outlines the genesis and development of global anti-bribery legislation, beginning with the history of the United States Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the predecessor of all modem anti-bribery efforts. We then explore the background of the OECD Convention and the role it played in the development and enactment of the Bribery Act. We also trace the long and tortuous history of the United Kingdom's efforts to comply with the OECD Convention by finally enacting the Bribery Act after more than a decade of debate and delay by Parliament. A. The US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act The United States began the global campaign to eliminate bribery and corruption in international business transactions in 1977 with the enactment of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act ("FCPA"). 9 The FCPA, a curious artifact of the Watergate Scandal,o has two operative provisions. The first is that businesses keep accurate books and records of their financial transactions. This provision is enforced by the Securities and Exchange Commission." For this article, the more important FCPA provision is the

A legal perspective of corporate compliance governance to collusive bidding in China

“…A plea of nolo contendere is raised by the company itself to seek a plea of nolo contendere by compliance. The addition of the “failure of commercial organizations to prevent bribery” in the Bribery Act of 2010 is also a good example of the concept of criminal compliance in the UK legislation (Bean and MacGuidwin, 2011). If an “associated person” of a business organization offers a bribe to another person to obtain or retain the business of the organization or to obtain or retain a business advantage over the organization, the business organization commits the crime.…”