Law Commons^™

An Assessment Of The Impact Of The Sarbanes-Oxley Act On The Investigation Violations Of The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, Karen Cascini, Alan L. Delfavero

WCBT Faculty Publications

During the late 1990s and early 2000s, a plethora of corporate scandals occurred. Due to these corporate debacles, corporate executives have been placed under fire. In response to such unethical conduct with regard to internal practices and financial reporting, legislation has been passed in order to ensure that corporations conduct their business in an ethical manner. The purpose of this paper is to assess the connection between the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 (FCPA) and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOx), to determine whether SOx has influenced the FCPA’s investigative violation activities by examining the number of such investigations …

Anti-Corruption Principle, The, Zephyr Teachout

Faculty Scholarship

There is a structural anti-corruption principle, akin to federalism or the separation-of-powers principle, embedded in the Constitution. The Constitution was designed, in large part, to protect against corruption. This structural principle - like the other structural principles - should inform how judges "do" modern political process cases. This paper documents the corruption concerns at the Constitutional convention in detail. It then examines how the modern Supreme Courts' conception of corruption is fractured and ahistorical, and has led to an incoherent jurisprudence. Instead of starting with Buckley v. Valeo, as so many modern cases do, the Court should return to the …

Addressing Corruption In Pacific Islands Fisheries: A Report/Prepared For Iucn Profish Law Enforcement, Corruption And Fisheries Project, Ben M. Tsamenyi, Quentin A. Hanich

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

No abstract provided.

The Trial Of Gaius (Or Caius) Verres: An Account, Douglas O. Linder

Faculty Works

The records of the trial of Gaius (sometimes spelled Caius) Verres reveal - far better than any other extant source - the corruption of the last years of the Roman Republic. Through a series of orations and witnesses, Verres's prosecutor, Cicero, presented a powerful story of how the shocking greed and arrogance of a provincial governor wreaked havoc on what had been the breadbasket of the Roman Empire, Sicily. In his successful prosecution of Verres, Cicero both demonstrated the talents that would make him one of Rome's foremost politicians and set in motion events that bring an end to the …

Bankruptcy Fire Sales, Lynn M. Lopucki, Joseph W. Doherty

UF Law Faculty Publications

For more than two decades, scholars working from an economic perspective have criticized the bankruptcy reorganization process and sought to replace it with market mechanisms. In 2002, Professors Douglas G. Baird and Robert K. Rasmussen asserted in The End of Bankruptcy, an article published in the Stanford Law Review, that improvements in the market for large, public companies had rendered reorganization obsolete. Going concern value could be captured through sale. This article reports the results of an empirical study comparing the recoveries in bankruptcy sales of large public companies in the period 2000-2004 with the recoveries in bankruptcy reorganizations during …

The Paradox Of Corruption As Antithesis To Economic Development: Does Corruption Undermine Economic Development In Indonesia And China, And Why Are The Experiences Different In Each Country?, Andrew White

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The question of whether corruption is antithetical to economic development has been extensively researched and debated since the 1960s. While nearly all participants in the debate appear to agree that corruption ultimately is antithetical to long-term economic development, the extent to which it positively or negatively affects economic development in the short term depends upon highly contextual factors. In different countries and regions of the world, factors of local culture and history, the nature of the state, the type of corruption and actors involved, and the political responses and motivations to curtail corruption all inform the answer to this question. …

The Complex Links Between Governance And Biodiversity, C. Barrett, C. Gibson, B. Hoffman, Mathew D. Mccubbins

Faculty Scholarship

We argue that two problems weaken the claims of those who link corruption and the exploitation of natural resources. The first is conceptual. Studies that use national level indicators of corruption fail to note that corruption comes in many forms, at multiple levels, and may or may not affect resource use. Without a clear causal model of the mechanism by which corruption affects resources, one should treat with caution any estimated relationship between corruption and the state of natural resources. The second problem is methodological: Simple models linking corruption measures and natural resource use typically do not account for other …

Regulating Lobbyists: Law, Ethics, And Public Policy, Vincent R. Johnson

Faculty Articles

Though lobbyists have an ancient lineage and constitutional pedigree arising out of the constitutional right to petition government and to hire surrogates to do so, some types of lobbying can have detrimental effects on the performance of public duties, diminishing public confidence in government and weakening our democracy. However, in remediating these problems, we can look to tools already in existence and employed across the nation, rather than developing radically innovative solutions. The debate over how to regulate lobbyists is politically charged and bewildering; however, by augmenting present rules, the goal of greater lobbyist regulation can be achieved without reinventing …

Informal Rules, Transaction Costs, And The Failure Of The “Takings” Law In China, Chenglin Liu

Faculty Articles

The enforcement of China’s new takings law has failed. In the unbalanced tug-of-war between individual homeowners and deep pocketed developers, the government sided with the latter by changing zoning plans to fit commercial development, authorizing forced evictions, deploying judicial police to execute eviction orders, lowering compensation standards, instructing courts not to hear cases involving demolitions, blocking class actions, and more. Many Chinese scholars argue that lackluster enforcement can be remedied by a well-drafted property code. However, applying the New Institutional Economics’ (NIE) theory on institutions to the enforcement failure associated with the takings law draws attention to informal complaints, which …

Paying For Politics, John M. De Figueiredo, Elizabeth Garrett

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Challenge Of Ethical Political Leadership, Brian Stiltner

Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies Faculty Publications

Without a solid ethical foundation to state governance, the process of developing and implementing sound public policy is weakened. In addition to the crisis of public confidence, which may turn voters away from politics in disgust, political scandals undermine the quality of the policymaking process.

Connecticut needs watertight laws, vigorous oversight, independent voices, and an electoral process that does not pervert the information voters receive. The responsibility of citizens includes not only voting their consciences but pressing their representatives to put the electoral process and policymaking on a cleaner, more transparent foundation.

Economic Suicide: The Collision Of Ethics And Risk In Securities Laws, Barbara Black, Jill Gross

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

The first part of this article looks at whether there are any legal principles derived from regulation or the case law to support an "economic suicide" claim. The second part of the article reviews arbitrators' awards to determine whether arbitrators do, in fact, decide favorably on economic suicide claims. The article also looks at some arbitrators' awards that appear to recognize an economic suicide claim to identify any factors that may lead arbitrators to award damages to the claimant. Finally, in the third part, we address whether policy considerations support an extension of recognized brokers' duties to include a duty …

Controlling Corruption In International Business: The International Legal Framework, Padideh Ala'i

Working Papers

Since 1995, the anti-corruption movement has had success in developing a global legal framework to combat transnational bribery and corruption. A distinguishing feature of the current anti-corruption movement is its emphasis on the economic cost of corruption and the involvement of the international financial institutions such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and regional development banks, in the efforts to combat corruption. As part of their efforts to combat corruption, international financial institutions have made effective anti-corruption reforms a prerequisite for future allocation of funds. The current anti-corruption movement has also been successful in enlisting the participation of …

Security Vs. Privacy: Reframing The Debate, Shaun B. Spencer

Faculty Publications

This essay explores several dimensions of the debate between security and privacy that accompanies many anti-terrorism and law enforcement proposals.

The Land Crisis In Zimbabwe: Getting Beyond The Myopic Focus Upon Black & White, Thomas W. Mitchell

Faculty Scholarship

This article deconstructs the role that race played in the land crisis in Zimbabwe that occurred in Zimbabwe in the late 1990s and earls 2000s. The article makes it clear that the government of Zimbabwe did not extend robust property rights to its black majority population for the most part even as it took land from large white landowners. This is revealing given that the government's primary justification for taking land from large white landowners was that the black majority unjustly owned little property in Zimbabwe as a result of colonialist and neocolonialist, discriminatory polices.

The Legacy Of Geographical Morality And Colonialism: A Historical Assessment Of The Current Crusade Against Corruption, Padideh Ala'i

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

This Article examines the legacy of the rule of geographical morality - that is the norm by which a citizen of the country in the North may engage in acts of corruption in any country in the South, including bribery and extortion, without the attachment of any moral condemnation to those acts. Part I of the Article begins by reviewing the impeachment trial of Warren Hastings, who served as Governor General of the Bengal from 1772-1785, on charges of bribery and corruption. It was during that impeachment proceeding when the words "principles of geographical morality" were used by, the prosectuor, …

Comparing The Scope Of The Federal Government’S Authority To Prosecute Federal Corruption And State And Local Corruption: Some Surprising Conclusions And A Proposal, Sara Sun Beale

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Recusal Alternative To Campaign Finance Legislation, John C. Nagle

Journal Articles

Typical campaign finance proposals focus on limiting the amount of money that can be contributed to candidates and the amount of money that candidates can spend. This article suggests an alternative proposal that places no restrictions on contributions or spending, but rather targets the corrupting influence of contributions. Under the proposals, legislators would be required to recuse themselves from voting on issues directly affecting contributors. I contend that this proposal would prevent corruption and the appearance of corruption while remedying the first amendment objections to the regulation of money in campaigns.

The Business Of Bribery: Globalization, Economic Liberalization, And The ‘Problem’ Of Corruption, Margaret E. Beare, James Williams

Articles & Book Chapters

This paper is intended as a critical response to the emerging consensus within both academic and policy literatures that we are currently facing an epidemic of corruption which threatens to undermine the stability of economic and political development on both a national and global scale, and which requires both immediate and wide-ranging policy interventions. Based on a review of the publications and policy statements of the leading anti-corruption crusaders — namely the OECD, the IMF, and the World Bank — it will be argued that the recent concern with corruption is attributable, not to any substantive increase incorrupt practices, but …

The Future Of Governmental Ethics: Law And Morality, Jon L. Mills

UF Law Faculty Publications

Based on a speech presented at the 16th International Symposium on Economic Crime, Cambridge University, England September 13-19, 1998.

America’S Preoccupation With Ethics In Government, Vincent R. Johnson

Faculty Articles

Many Americans today expect that the law can, should, and will be used to ensure a level playing field in public life. Americans expect the law to eliminate, insofar as possible, any unfair advantage that might be gained through the use of special connections to those who exercise the power of government. There are numerous rules applicable to judges, lawyers, and public officials that each seek to promote equal treatment for all persons by limiting the ability of persons to use special connections and privileged relationships to gain an advantage in public affairs.

There were two threads of development in …

The Role Of The World Bank In Controlling Corruption, Susan Rose-Ackerman

Philip A. Hart Memorial Lecture

In 1997, Professor of Law and Political Science, Susan Rose-Ackerman of Yale University, delivered the Georgetown Law Center’s seventeenth Annual Philip A. Hart Memorial Lecture: "The World Bank’s Role in Controlling Corruption."

Susan Rose-Ackerman is Henry R. Luce Professor of Law and Political Science, Yale University, and Co-director of the Law School’s Center for Law, Economics, and Public Policy. She holds a Ph.D. in economics from Yale University and has held fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the Fullbright Commission. She was a visiting Research Fellow at the World Bank in 1995-96 where she did research on corruption and economic …

Corruption And Organized Crime: Lessons From History, Margaret E. Beare

Articles & Book Chapters

The intention of this paper is to serve in part as a warning to the international community concerned about corruption, to keep the focus based on the critical analysis of empirically verifiable information. In ways similar to how theorists spoke about organized crime in the 1960's and 1970's, articles today attempt to refer to corruption as if there were one agreed upon definition. However, like the concept “organized crime”, the term “corruption” involves diverse processes which have different meanings within different societies. Corruption (or a focus on corruption), may be the means toward very diverse ends and each may have …

Mr. Carter Goes To Washington, Allen K. Rostron

Faculty Works

Jimmy Carter's presidency began like Frank Capra's "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" (1939), as the tale of an idealistic and innocent outsider making his way from a humble small town to the nation's capital. Following that promising beginning, disappointment and frustration followed. The story of Carter's undoing found reflection in several films of that era, particularly "...And Justice for All" (1979), "The Seduction of Joe Tynan" (1979), and "Brubaker" (1980). Each concerns an idealistic hero whose uncompromised good intentions cannot prosper. These films capture a unique period when events tested America's enduring belief in the efficacy of virtue.

Sugar Coated Bullets: Corruption And The New Economic Order In China, Mark Findlay, Thomas Chor-Wing Chiu

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The recent political debate concerning the influence of corruption on the “new economic order” in the People's Republic of China is unique not only for its detailed and public manifestations, but also because it works around the acceptance of some degree of corporate private ownership of the means of production within China. The concern for corruption in Chinese government and commerce is not, of itself, novel.We prefer in this paper briefly to focus on the economic and political environment from within which this concern has been generated, to comment on the significance for the Government of the PRC in associating …

Corruption In Mexico: Implications For U.S. Foreign Policy, Keith S. Rosenn

Articles

No abstract provided.

Toward A Common Law For Undercover Investigations - A Book Review Of Abscam Ethics: Moral Issues And Deception In Law Enforcement, Bennett L. Gershman

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.