Corruption, International Business Transactions and the OECD

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In 1997, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) adopted the Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions (‘Convention’) which required each member state to make foreign bribery a crime in their respective jurisdictions by transcribing the Convention into domestic legislation. However, by mid-2011 the collective OECD member States (as well as the countries aspiring to OECD membership) have achieved only moderate success in their progressive goal of eradicating foreign bribery in international business transactions within their economic, legal and political jurisdictions. The lack of significant demonstrable success, whether attributable to a flagging commitment to the ambitious goals of the Convention or to the considerable complexities of corruption, has effectively rendered the collective response of the member States unstable and in jeopardy. Transparency International, a self-proclaimed global civil society organisation established to combat corruption, has warned that ‘[u]nless enforcement is sharply increased, existing support could well erode’ (2010b, 8). This chapter considers the scope of the challenge of corruption (part 1), traces aspects of the OECD response to the various challenges of corruption (part 2), highlights the civil cases against bribery (as well as its various defences) (part 3), and sets out various prospects for reform (part 4).