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Full-Text Articles in Law
Private Actors And Public Corruption: Why Courts Should Adopt A Broad Interpretation Of The Hobbs Act, Megan Demarco
Private Actors And Public Corruption: Why Courts Should Adopt A Broad Interpretation Of The Hobbs Act, Megan Demarco
Michigan Law Review
Federal prosecutors routinely charge public officials with “extortion under color of official right” under a public-corruption statute called the Hobbs Act. To be prosecuted under the Hobbs Act, a public official must promise official action in return for a bribe or kickback. The public official, however, does not need to have actual authority over that official action. As long as the victim reasonably believed that the public official could deliver or influence government action, the public official violated the Hobbs Act. Private citizens also solicit bribes in return for influencing official action. Yet most courts do not think the Hobbs …
The Two Faces Of Bribery: International Corruption Pathways Meet Conflicting Legislative Regimes, Jeffrey R. Boles
The Two Faces Of Bribery: International Corruption Pathways Meet Conflicting Legislative Regimes, Jeffrey R. Boles
Michigan Journal of International Law
Suppose a government agency tasks its purchasing agent with buying a set of computer servers for the agency’s use, and the agent contacts a technology company to make the purchase. After selecting the needed servers, the agent learns of the servers’ fair market value but does not negotiate with the technology company to obtain the lowest possible price. Instead, unbeknownst to the government, the agent agrees with the technology company’s sales manager to purchase the servers on behalf of the government for an amount significantly above their fair market value, and, in return, the company agrees to give the agent …
Reviving Lenity And Honest Belief At The Boundaries Of Criminal Law, John L. Diamond
Reviving Lenity And Honest Belief At The Boundaries Of Criminal Law, John L. Diamond
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
It is a common misconception that there is a line between criminal and innocent conduct that is transparent and fixed. In fact, much of criminal law is fluid and elastic, free, if strategically applied, to label conduct as legal or illegal. In some cases, this reflects crimes that are vaguely defined or imprecise. In other cases, the prohibited conduct simply includes what is so conventionally accepted as legal that the criminal label is perceived as inapplicable until a prosecutor chooses to apply it. The problem of a fluid rather than a fixed line for criminality is that prosecutorial discretion becomes …
Ever The Twain Shall Meet, Fred S. Mcchesney
Ever The Twain Shall Meet, Fred S. Mcchesney
Michigan Law Review
Instinctively, corruption is deplorable. Nobody likes private citizens paying governmental officials for special favors. Few have deplored corruption longer or in greater detail than economist Susan Rose-Ackerman. In Corruption and Government, Professor Rose-Ackerman discusses how corruption starts ("causes"), why it is bad ("consequences"), and how to stop it ("reform"), principally from an economic perspective. Professor Rose-Ackerman's interest in corruption derives partly from her outside work with international agencies, especially time spent at the World Bank - "a transformative experience" (p. xi). Her twenty-two page bibliography ranges across sources in economics and politics, plus many documents from the World Bank and …
The Emerging Role Of The Quid Pro Quo Requirement In Public Corruption .Prosecutions Under The Hobbs Act, Peter D. Hardy
The Emerging Role Of The Quid Pro Quo Requirement In Public Corruption .Prosecutions Under The Hobbs Act, Peter D. Hardy
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
This Note discusses the quid pro quo requirement under the Hobbs Act, a federal criminal statute which applies to bribery by public officials. The author first describes two recent decisions by the Supreme Court, McCormick v. United States and Evans v. United States, which established slightly different versions of a quid pro quo requirement in public corruption prosecutions under the Hobbs Act. The author then explains that the lower federal courts interpreting McCormick and Evans have molded the quid pro quo requirement so that a prosecutor must prove in all public corruption cases under the Hobbs Act that the …
Criminal Law-Immunity From Prosecution Statutes--Revocation Of License As Penalty Or Forfeiture, Richard W. Pogue S.Ed.
Criminal Law-Immunity From Prosecution Statutes--Revocation Of License As Penalty Or Forfeiture, Richard W. Pogue S.Ed.
Michigan Law Review
Plaintiff, an architect, involuntarily testified as to facts involved in a bribery transaction, before a state attorney, a grand jury, and at the trial of members of the Board of Public Instruction for bribery and conspiracy to bribe. Subsequently the State Board of Architecture filed charges against him seeking to revoke his certificate, basing these charges on the same bribery transaction, in which he allegedly had participated. Plaintiff thereupon instituted suit for declaration of his rights and immunities. He claimed an immunity by virtue of a Florida statute which provided that in connection with certain crimes (including bribery) "no person …
Evidence--Criminal Law--Cross-Examination Of Accused's Character Witness Concerning Accused's Prior Arrest, C. C. Grunewald S. Ed.
Evidence--Criminal Law--Cross-Examination Of Accused's Character Witness Concerning Accused's Prior Arrest, C. C. Grunewald S. Ed.
Michigan Law Review
On trial in a district court for bribing a federal revenue agent, defendant called five witnesses to testify to his good reputation. During cross-examination by the district attorney, the character witnesses were asked: ''Did you ever hear that on October 11, 1920, the defendant was arrested for receiving stolen goods?" The trial judge overruled the objection to the question, and the witnesses answered in the negative. The prosecutor exhibited a paper record of this arrest to the court. The judge instructed the jury that the question was to test the standard of the character evidence only, not to establish the …