Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Education Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Bryane Michael (bryane.michael@stcatz.ox.ac.uk)

Anti-corruption - Articles

Articles 1 - 9 of 9

Full-Text Articles in Education

Compliance Audit Of Anti-Corruption Regulations: A Case Study From Carpatistan Customs, Bryane Michael Dec 2011

Compliance Audit Of Anti-Corruption Regulations: A Case Study From Carpatistan Customs, Bryane Michael

Bryane Michael (bryane.michael@stcatz.ox.ac.uk)

The principles and findings from internal government audits (aimed at generating recommendations to improve compliance with anti-corruption regulations) can greatly contribute to the wider anti-corruption literature. Internal audit techniques can overcome the weaknesses of the four predominant approaches to evaluating anti-corruption regulatory performance – the systems design approach, the ad-hoc controls studies approach, the descriptive legal analysis approach and the prescriptive manuals and handbooks approach. This paper discusses a compliance audit of anti-corruption regulations in an anti-corruption audit conducted in 2009. The audit findings and recommendations illustrate the ways that models and previous research in the social sciences can be …


What Does Kosovo Teach Us About Using Human Rights Law To Prosecute Corruption Offences?, Bryane Michael Jan 2010

What Does Kosovo Teach Us About Using Human Rights Law To Prosecute Corruption Offences?, Bryane Michael

Bryane Michael (bryane.michael@stcatz.ox.ac.uk)

If a patient must pay a bribe to obtain life-saving surgery, does the doctor’s solicitation of a bribe represent a violation of the victim’s human rights? This paper explores the ways in which anti-corruption practitioners can look to various provisions in human rights law in order to prevent or prosecute corruption-related offences. We use Kosovo as a case study because its constitution gives direct effect to the major international human rights conventions. We find -- using Kosovo as a case study -- that some types of corruption lead to separately prosecutable human rights offences. We also find that pre-existing violations …


What Do We Know About Corruption (And Anti-Corruption) In Customs?, Bryane Michael, Nigel Moore Jan 2010

What Do We Know About Corruption (And Anti-Corruption) In Customs?, Bryane Michael, Nigel Moore

Bryane Michael (bryane.michael@stcatz.ox.ac.uk)

What are the lessons from anti-corruption programmes in Customs agencies over the last 20 years? The data suggest that many of the usual activities -- like codes of conduct and posters do not work. Internal inspectorates, and particularly internal audit, has a large effect on reducing corruption. A review of the literature and best practice presented.


Do Customs Trade Facilitation Programmes Help Reduce Customs-Related Corruption?, Bryane Michael, Frank Ferguson, Alisher Karimov Jan 2010

Do Customs Trade Facilitation Programmes Help Reduce Customs-Related Corruption?, Bryane Michael, Frank Ferguson, Alisher Karimov

Bryane Michael (bryane.michael@stcatz.ox.ac.uk)

Customs-related corruption costs World Customs Organisation (WCO) members at least $2 billion in customs revenue each year. Using recent data only about bribe payers’ actual experiences in paying bribes, we show that trade facilitation would only help reduce corruption and improve efficiency – in a large number of customs agencies -- if the customs agency’s director undertakes a big-bang approach to reform. We also find support for the corruption clubs theory – that customs agencies in the process of reform are either moving toward OECD levels of integrity and efficiency; or they are sliding toward a “red zone” group of …


Issues In Anti-Corruption Law: How Can Code Of Conduct Laws Be Drafted In Order To Reduce Corruption In A Public Sector Like Romania’S?, Bryane Michael Jan 2009

Issues In Anti-Corruption Law: How Can Code Of Conduct Laws Be Drafted In Order To Reduce Corruption In A Public Sector Like Romania’S?, Bryane Michael

Bryane Michael (bryane.michael@stcatz.ox.ac.uk)

International organisations, like the UN and EU, have encouraged their member states for years to increase civil servants’ compliance with particular codes of conduct. Romania represents probably one of the most advanced countries in attempting to legislate on civil servant ethics through its Code of Conduct Law. Yet, the Romanian Code of Conduct Law possesses significant weaknesses, emanating both from the inherent difficulties of using hard law in a soft law area (like civil servants’ ethics) and the Law’s silence as to specific procedures which government agencies should use in implementing the Law. Given these weaknesses, Romanian government agencies should …


The Evolution Of The Anti-Corruption Industry In The Third Wave Of Anti-Corruption Work, Bryane Michael Jan 2009

The Evolution Of The Anti-Corruption Industry In The Third Wave Of Anti-Corruption Work, Bryane Michael

Bryane Michael (bryane.michael@stcatz.ox.ac.uk)

Work on anti-corruption has changed significantly in the mid-1990s -- reflecting a "third wave" of anti-corruption work. If the first and second waves of anti-corruption work reflected the marketisation of anti-corruption projects, the third wave reflects the direct cross-border co-operation between law enforcement agencies (particularly in the European Union). The first part of this paper reviews the literature and the data we consulted in our (rather informal) study. The second part traces the evolution of the anti-corruption industry across time – showing the beginning of each new wave as a “structural break” in the organisational structure of project delivery. The …


Issues In Anti-Corruption Law: Can An Activist Regulatory Stance Overcome Legislative Problems In Preventive Anti-Corruption Agencies Like Montenegro’S?, Bryane Michael Jan 2009

Issues In Anti-Corruption Law: Can An Activist Regulatory Stance Overcome Legislative Problems In Preventive Anti-Corruption Agencies Like Montenegro’S?, Bryane Michael

Bryane Michael (bryane.michael@stcatz.ox.ac.uk)

Article 6 of the UN Convention Against Corruption requires that signatory states establish an anti-corruption agency (or agencies) responsible for preventing corruption. However, the Convention – and legal scholarship in general – provides little direction about how such agencies should be organised. Moreover, the piece-meal nature of anti-corruption legislation in most developing countries makes the efficient operation of such agencies difficult to impossible. This article argues that regulatory instruments can help overcome the inherent weaknesses of legislative governing many anti-corruption agencies. Using the Montenegro’s Directorate for Anti-Corruption Initiatives (DACI), I show how the design of a regulation – relying on …


Should The World Customs Organisation Develop A Hard Law Approach To Anti-Corruption In Customs?, Bryane Michael Jan 2009

Should The World Customs Organisation Develop A Hard Law Approach To Anti-Corruption In Customs?, Bryane Michael

Bryane Michael (bryane.michael@stcatz.ox.ac.uk)

The WCO, among international organisations, remains conspicuously absent in its work on anti-corruption. This brief, a set of notes for a conference lecture, provide the steps the WCO should take in order to help customs agencies adopt anti-corruption legislation world-wide.


When Eu Law Meets Arabic Law: Assessment Of Anti-Corruption Law In Morocco And Some Proposed Amendments, Bryane Michael, Abdelaziz Nouaydi Jan 2008

When Eu Law Meets Arabic Law: Assessment Of Anti-Corruption Law In Morocco And Some Proposed Amendments, Bryane Michael, Abdelaziz Nouaydi

Bryane Michael (bryane.michael@stcatz.ox.ac.uk)

This article reviews the present state of the adoption of anti-corruption legal provisions usually adopted in EU (or candidate) countries in Morocco. Morocco lags behind many countries in its adoption of anti-corruption legislation and the recently established Central Agency of the Prevention of Corruption is unlikely to succeed in speeding up the adoption of these measures. English language translations of a number of Moroccan anti-corruption legal instruments are presented and amendments to these legal instruments are recommended (based on international best practice) in order to increase the likely effectiveness of Moroccan law enforcement institutions in fighting corruption.