Law Commons^™

Guide To Land Contracts: Forestry Projects, International Senior Lawyers Project, Kaitlin Y. Cordes, Sam Szoke-Burke

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

Agricultural investment contracts and forestry projects can be complex, with complicated provisions that are difficult to understand. To assist non-lawyers in better understanding agricultural investment contracts, such as those available on the Open Land Contracts repository, CCSI has developed a Guide to Land Contracts: Forestry Projects.

This Guide, prepared by International Senior Lawyers Project staff and volunteers in collaboration with the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment, aims to assist the Open Land Contracts repository users in unpacking the technical provisions and language typically found in forestry contracts in order to better understand the contracts and the potential implications of …

Taking A Byte Out Of Corruption: A Data Analytic Framework For Cities To Fight Fraud, Cut Costs, And Promote Integrity, Center For The Advancement Of Public Integrity

Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity (Inactive)

In recent years, the emerging science of data analytics has equipped law enforcement agencies and urban policymakers with game-changing tools. Many leaders and thinkers in the public integrity community believe such innovations could prove equally transformational for the fight against public corruption. However, corruption control presents unique challenges that must be addressed before city watchdog agencies can harness the power of big data. City governments need to improve data collection and management practices and develop new models to leverage available data to better monitor corruption risks.

To bridge this gap and pave the way for a potential data breakthrough in …

Recent Reforms Of Switzerland's Anti-Corruption Laws: What They Mean For International Sports Organizations, Nicole Gütling

Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity (Inactive)

Switzerland is perceived as one of the least corrupt countries in the world based on international rankings. According to the “Corruption Perception Index” of Transparency International, Switzerland has regularly been rated among the top eight least corrupt countries since 2009. Even before then, since 1995 in fact, Switzerland has consistently received good rankings on integrity. However, recent corruption allegations in the world of football, particularly the cases involving the FIFA World Cup 2018 and 2022, have led to international scrutiny of the effectiveness of Switzerland’s anti-money laundering and anti-corruption regimes. This issue is particularly significant for Switzerland, which is home …

The Corruption Case Of Former New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, Center For The Advancement Of Public Integrity

Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity (Inactive)

Sheldon Silver is the former Democratic Speaker of the New York State Assembly, a post he held from 1994 until January 2015. He represented Manhattan’s Lower East Side from 1976 until November 30, 2015, when he was convicted on four counts of honest-services fraud, two counts of extortion and one count of money laundering. On July 13, 2017, his convictions were overturned.

The Lulu Stipend, Center For The Advancement Of Public Integrity

Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity (Inactive)

A “lulu” is a stipend available to New York State legislators for their work in leadership roles, such as committee chairperson. The stipends are in addition to legislator’s $79,500 base pay. Stipends range in value, from $9,000 for a ranking minority member of a committee, up to $41,500 for the temporary president of the Senate. The head of each State legislative body, the Speaker of the Assembly, and the Temporary President of the Senate direct the payment of these stipends. By law, no legislator may receive more than one stipend at a time. Because legislators routinely serve in more than …

America's Familial Tribalism: Will It Impact Education Internationally?, Amra Sabic-El-Rayess, Alexandra Seeman

Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity (Inactive)

With President Trump in power, the United States may have entered a new era of familial tribalism, a style of governing that could best be depicted as a sudden disruption to the traditional democratic governance and merited mobility the United States has historically promoted both at home and abroad. With this form of familial tribalism, a new level of power has been given to the members of the First Family, resulting in the United States increasingly mirroring the modus operandi of many developing countries that it had formerly criticized for their own lack of ethics, transparency, and competence …

Snowing And Towing In Montréal: The Inspector General's Fight Against Collusion In Two Industries, The Office Of The Inspector General Of Montréal

Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity (Inactive)

Offices of Inspectors General (OIGs) provide a highly valuable service by fostering and promoting integrity, transparency, and accountability in government. These offices provide independent oversight and monitor governmental operations, acting as watchdogs for the people and helping to maintain or restore the public’s confidence in their institutions.

The mandate of Montréal’s OIG is to conduct administrative investigations and to oversee contracting processes and the implementation of contracts by the City of Montréal in order to prevent breaches of integrity and violations of rules. Created in 2014, Montréal’s OIG has already had a meaningful impact on public procurement and management policies. …

Assessing Australia's National Integrity Framework: A New Way Forward, Anita Das

Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity (Inactive)

Historically, Australia has not been regarded as a particularly corrupt country. In 2012, Transparency International ranked Australia as the 7th least corrupt country in its Corruption Perceptions Index. This ranking has deteriorated six places in four years; in 2016, Australia landed in 13th place on the same index.

This sharp decline, in conjunction with continued revelations of corrupt conduct in the public, private and union sectors, has resulted in unprecedented national attention on corruption issues. As a result, the Australian federal government is currently considering a suite of reforms related to anti-corruption enforcement, including the introduction of deferred prosecution agreements, …

Independent Inspectors General Under Siege: A Tale Of Two State Inspectors General, Mary Jane Cooper, Stephen Street

Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity (Inactive)

Advocates for transparent and corruption-free government agree that independent Inspectors General are a critical asset in ensuring that public funds are not wasted or endangered by corrupt officials. More and more states and cities in the U.S. now have Inspectors General as part of their oversight structures, and the numbers keep going up.

But setting up an Inspector General’s office and providing it with some form of independent powers and a budget does not always guarantee a happy ending for seekers of honest and efficient government, even when an OIG is demonstrably successful at its mission of saving taxpayer money …

Sports Corruption: The History And Challenges Of Anti-Doping Regimes In The U.S. And Abroad, Shlomo Fischer

Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity (Inactive)

The International Olympic Committee first began drug-testing in response to the death of Knud Enemark Jensen, a Danish cyclist who collapsed of heatstroke during the 1960 Olympics in Rome and whose autopsy suggested that amphetamines played a role in his death. A wide range of performance enhancing substances was formally banned, and doping tests were administered to preserve the integrity of competition and to protect the health of athletes. The IOC’s initial regime was neither systematic nor robust, lacking both methodologically and technologically. However, the gap between doping and monitoring gradually began to close as testing became more accurate and …

Data Analytics, The Next Frontier: Taking A Byte Out Of Corruption, Shlomo Fischer

Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity (Inactive)

In June 2017, CAPI presented the second installment of our signature conference, Global Cities II, which brought together anti-corruption leaders from government and civil society worldwide, including delegates from Bogotá, Cape Town, London, Melbourne, Miami, Montréal, New York, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, and San Francisco, to discuss important topics such as using data analytics to combat corruption, government transparency, enforcement challenges and victories, and innovations in oversight.

Balancing Integrity With Privacy Interests: Fighting Cyber-Corruption With Background Checks, Robin J. Kempf, Chelsea Binns

Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity (Inactive)

Cybercrime is a serious threat to the public sector, especially as more of the public’s business is automated. In recent years, malicious actors have successfully infiltrated systems at the U.S. Department of Defense, the Navy, and the Environmental Protection Agency. Yet despite all the media attention on external hackers, especially those coming from foreign countries, employees remain the biggest cyber risk to governments. While background checks may promote employee integrity among those in public service, privacy concerns exist. This brief discusses how background checks are utilized to mitigate employee risk of cybercrime in the financial industry. The practices of this …

Innovations In Oversight: Cities' Proactive Approaches To Fighting Corruption, Adoree Kim

Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity (Inactive)

In June 2017, CAPI presented the second installment of our signature conference, Global Cities II, which brought together anti-corruption leaders from government and civil society worldwide, including delegates from Bogotá, Cape Town, London, Melbourne, Miami, Montréal, New York, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, and San Francisco, to discuss important topics such as using data analytics to combat corruption, government transparency, enforcement challenges and victories, and innovations in oversight.

The Maritime Anti-Corruption Network: A Model For Public-Private Cooperation Against Graft, Alison Taylor, Martin Benderson

Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity (Inactive)

Firms operating in global markets often face systemic corruption issues, such as frequent demands for operational facilitation payments (“grease payments”), sometimes paired with extortion and shakedowns. Many anti-bribery regimes prohibit such payments and the OECD has decried the “corrosive effect of small facilitation payments, particularly on sustainable development and the rule of law.” However, any firm that sets an internal policy against such payments risks being snubbed by government officials in certain markets where facilitation payments are expected. Scholars call this a “collective action problem,” in which the incentives motivating individual firms or government agents toward selfish behavior are misaligned …

The Fifa Report, Center For The Advancement Of Public Integrity

Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity (Inactive)

This week a report by former FIFA Ethics Committee Chairman, Michael Garcia, was released by FIFA shortly after being leaked. Previously, only a forty-two page summary of the report, published by FIFA in 2014, had been available; Garcia disputed this summary’s accuracy and soon thereafter resigned. The full report reveals the details of “improper” payments and activities by bid teams around the world. The report is a result of a two-year investigation into allegations of significant corruption during the bidding processes for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, which are to be held in Russia and Qatar, respectively.

Profile In Public Integrity: Amie Ely, Center For The Advancement Of Public Integrity

Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity (Inactive)

Amie Ely is director of the National Attorneys General Training and Research Institute’s (NAGTRI) Center for Ethics and Public Integrity as well as NAGTRI program counsel. She is staff liaison for the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) Law Enforcement and Prosecutorial Relations Working Group.

Profile In Public Integrity: Jan Yamane, Center For The Advancement Of Public Integrity

Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity (Inactive)

Jan Yamane is the Executive Director and Legal Counsel of the Honolulu Ethics Commission, a position she has held since August 2016. Before joining the Ethics Commission, Yamane worked for over ten years in the Office of the Hawaiʻi State Auditor, most notably as acting Hawaiʻi State Auditor from 2012-2016. Yamane holds a Juris Doctorate from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and a master’s degree from Harvard University.

Profile In Public Integrity: Jacques Duchesneau, Center For The Advancement Of Public Integrity

Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity (Inactive)

Jacques Duchesneau was appointed Inspector General of Saint-Jérôme, Quebec in March 2017. In this position, he leads the newly created Bureau d'intégrité professionnelle et administrative (BIPA), an agency tasked with identifying and combating cases of public corruption, collusion, and fraud. Before becoming Saint-Jérome’s Inspector General, Duchesneau served as the head of the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA), and as Chief of the Montréal Police Service.

Profile In Public Integrity: Laurence Cockcroft, Center For The Advancement Of Public Integrity

Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity (Inactive)

A development economist and author, Laurence Cockcroft co-founded Transparency International in 1993 and served as Chairman of the U.K. chapter from 2000-2008. Cockcroft has drawn from his experience with Transparency International to author Global Corruption, as well as Unmasked: Corruption in the West, recently published in the U.K. and the U.S. by I.B. Tauris.

Profile In Public Integrity: Tom Hood, Center For The Advancement Of Public Integrity

Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity (Inactive)

Tom Hood is the Executive Director and Chief Counsel of the Mississippi Ethics Commission. Hood joined the Commission in 2003 as assistant director and counsel and was promoted to his current role in 2006. Hood helped draft Mississippi’s Ethics Reform Act of 2008 and advised the Mississippi Legislature on the bill’s implications. Earlier in his career, Hood was a lawyer in private practice focusing on construction law.