UC Irvine Journal of International, Transnational, and Comparative Law
Abstract
To date, “transnational criminal law” has been the dominant
paradigm for explaining and mapping rules on corruption in the
international legal literature. Transnational criminal law is presented as a
system of law descending from multilateral crime control treaties or a field or
order that emerges through international political processes of regime
formation. Transnational criminal lawyers identify and describe cross-border
legal rules, and seek to evaluate them against liberal norms of democratic
governance and individual civil and political human rights. This Article
details the limits of transnational criminal conceptions of “anticorruption”
through a study of proposed changes to Australian laws on corporate foreign
bribery. Drawing on primary and secondary documentary sources, domestic
and international, it shows that the emerging antipodean rules are only
partially transnational, as that term is understood in transnational criminal
law theory. Likewise, multilateral “suppression conventions” and related
soft laws are but one impetus for the proposed changes to Australian federal
anticorruption legislation. Rather, as the transnational legal ordering
literature suggests, a recursive process appears to be at work between
international organizations and local legislators, as well as transnational
non-state actors, both charities and businesses. This process is marked by
moments of borrowing from (former) patrons, the US and the UK.
However, it is also punctuated by themes of modernization, economic
efficiency, and reputation. In addition, Australian anti-corruption activities
may result not just in changes to national criminal law, but also in the
development of “new” – and controversial – techniques of governance.
Recommended Citation
Radha Ivory,
Transnational Criminal Law or the Transnational Legal Ordering of Corruption?,
4
UC Irvine Journal of International, Transnational, and Comparative Law
26
(2019).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.uci.edu/ucijil/vol4/iss1/4