The role of the judiciary in combating corruption: aiding and inhibiting factors in Nigeria

Based on empirical facts and research in socio-economic fields, it is consensually agreed among scholars that corruption is one of the greatest hindrances to the development of any country. As part of the efforts to combat the menace of corruption, laws and institutions have been put in place. Consequently, judges, by virtue of their position in society, have an important role to play to ensure the effectiveness of those laws and institutions. However, the Nigerian judiciary has failed to live up to its responsibility in its role of combating corruption in the country and is even itself accused of corruption. This article discusses the factors that are necessary to assist in building an effective, vibrant and corruption-free judiciary. Salient factors that hinder the judiciary in the performance of its role to combat corruption are highlighted. The article finally suggests the need to reform Nigeria’s judicial sector and to set in motion all the machinery necessary for the purpose of creating a formidable judiciary in the country.     

Norms,law and social change: Nigeria’s anti-corruption struggle, 1999–2017

Corruption is notoriously persistent in Nigeria notwithstanding the panoply of laws deployed over the years against it. This article argues that the factors constraining the effectiveness of laws in the fight against corruption are to be found not in the laws, but in the larger societal matrix of resilient social norms and institutions, which constitute the environment of corruption in the country. The environment thus constituted is either conducive to, or largely tolerant of, corruption. The article then suggests that the anti-corruption effort, to be successful, must engage broadly with the environment by instigating social change.     

China’s anti-graft campaign and international anti-corruption norms: Towards a “new international anti-corruption order”?

This article analyzes the growing impact of an increasingly powerful China on the evolution of norms governing the global fight against corruption. Combining insights into the diffusion of anti-corruption norms and China’s ‘two-way socialization’ into the international order with an analysis of the Chinese leadership’s internationalized anti-corruption campaign, it argues that China’s active involvement in the international fight against corruption is bound to challenge prevailing international ‘definitions’ and ‘solutions’ of corruption. Despite the considerable attention to supposed incompatibilities between ‘culturally insensitive’ Western anti-corruption efforts and conflicting Chinese cultural norms, the actual ‘China challenge’ to the international anti-corruption regime is much less a cultural than a political one. While China’s formal-legal anti-corruption system has been receptive to international socialization, China’s own contributions to international norm making are defined by the Party’s top-level leadership, which promotes a different set of anti-corruption norms. However, a coherent alternative ‘Chinese model’ of anti-corruption, akin to the globally propagated ‘China path’ for economic development and poverty reduction, is not yet in sight.     

<Emphasis Type="Bold">A</Emphasis>nti-corruption agencies: between empowerment and irrelevance

The anti-corruption activity of the 1990s is characterized by the rise of new players, such as specialized anti-corruption bodies. Anti-corruption agencies (ACAs) are public bodies of a durable nature, with a specific mission to fight corruption and reducing the opportunity structures propitious for its occurrence in society through preventive and/or repressive measures. Independently of their format and powers, ACAs encounter various constraints to their mandate, which explains the meagre results obtained by some of them. This introductory paper tries to understand the rise, future, and implications of this new kind of “integrity warrior” and to locate them in the evolving doctrine of corruption control. The objective of this edited volume is to re-launch the debate on ACAs as the most innovative feature of the anti-corruption movement of the last two decades.     

Improving state legitimacy? The role of anti-corruption agencies in fragile and conflict-affected states

Anti-corruption reforms in fragile and conflict-affected states are considered as a policy imperative by international actors engaged in statebuilding. The establishment of anti-corruption agencies is often the preferred implementation strategy. The main rationale is that anti-corruption agencies demonstrate a government’s commitment to fight corruption, and should thus improve state legitimacy within a context of weak governance. In practice, several intervening factors condition the legitimacy effect of anti-corruption agencies, including the types and systems of corruption prevalent in a specific context, the perceptions of corruption towards specific parts of government, and how citizens attribute the successes or failures of these agencies to the state. More broadly, these intervening factors also challenge the predominant assumption of a positive linear relationship between anti-corruption reforms, increased state legitimacy, and greater stability in fragile and conflict-affected states.     

“It’s the politics, stupid!”. The politicization of anti-corruption in Italy

This article aims to analyze the relationship between judicial activism against political corruption and electoral accountability. The judiciary plays a pivotal role in enforcing anti-corruption legislation, and, in many countries, courts have moved closer and closer towards that kind of working. In the article, we analyze the conditions under which a judicial prosecution of corrupt practices can also lead to electoral punishment of political misconducts by voters, or to a failure of accountability mechanisms. The latter outcome is more likely to occur if judicial activism is politicized. The ‘politicization’ of anti-corruption initiatives is here defined as an increase in the polarization of opinions, interests, or values about judicial investigations and the extent to which this polarization is strategically advanced towards the political debate by parties, political leaders, and media. By crystallizing a new dimension of political conflict, political actors can negatively affect electoral accountability, diminishing the risk of electoral punishment. We study this phenomenon by analyzing the case of Italy, a country which has experienced high levels of politicization of anti-corruption. However, whether and to what extent anti-corruption policies can be politicized is a question open for many other countries that can take a similar path.     

权力腐败的法理透析

坚决惩治权力腐败和有效预防权力腐败,关系人心向背和党的生死存亡,这一重大课题始终是我们党和国家面临的重大政治任务。权力腐败是权力的权利化和权力的非责任化,因为权力时刻存在着走向腐败的可能性,权力具有私欲性,权力具有可交换性,权力具有不平等性。权力腐败的本质是剥削,其法律属性与民本、民生、和谐社会、核心价值体系完全相悖。要充分认识反腐倡廉建设的战略意义,充分认识反腐败斗争的长期性、复杂性和艰巨性。     

反腐败国际合作法律问题探析--兼谈中国对《联合国反腐败公约》的应对

随着世界经济的一体化,腐败对一国经济发展和政治合法性的危害超越了现有的国界,影响着世界的和平与繁荣。许多国家已经认识到,只有充分而全面的国际合作才能有效地控制和惩治腐败,反腐败的国际交流与合作将愈来愈广泛。作为第一项全球性反腐败法律文件——《联合国反腐败公约》的通过,为反腐败国际合作提供了一个新的平台。我们应该转变“各自清扫门前雪”的旧观念,树立反腐败国际合作的新观念,加强在预防和打击腐败方面与各国和国际组织的合作。     

权力影响非分所得的制度防范

有效反腐必须善于发现、解决反腐中出现的新问题。权力影响非分所得是反腐中遇到的新问题,目前,权力影响非分所得的存在具有较大的社会危害性。造成这种现象的原因主要包括社会原因、体制原因、心理原因等。对此,需要在反腐斗争中针对新问题提出新对策。而有效防范权力影响非分所得需要综合运用市场运作手段、法律调整手段、从政伦理手段。     

Difficulties Confronted by ICSID Tribunals in Deciding International Investment Corruption Cases and Possible Solutions

The issue of corruption has attracted increasing attention in the study and practice of international investment law during recent years. After taking prudent consideration of the corruption defense invoked by the host states in some international investment arbitration cases involved with corruption, International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) tribunals accordingly determined the final awards. However, some parts of the arbitral jurisprudence aroused strong criticism, especially with regard to the ICSID tribunals’ reasoning that arbitrators have no jurisdiction over corruption-tainted international investments. The ICSID tribunals are legitimately supposed to exercise their jurisdiction and are lawfully obliged to probe into the nature of corrupt activities. The tribunals are strongly expected to adopt a balanced approach in deciding the merits and fairly weighing the obligations, rights, and interests of both disputing parties. It is preferable to strengthen the collaborative interaction between ICSID proceedings and domestic anti-corruption enforcement mechanisms when it comes to combating corrupt international investment activities. Existing international treaties (or specific treaty provisions) on combating corruption in international business transactions and calling for international cooperation, alongside domestic anti-corruption enforcement legislation, have actually laid solid legal foundations for the establishment of such an anti-corruption coordinative mechanism between ICSID and domestic corruption regulatory authorities on the global level.     

刑事侦查中网络反腐的思考

随着互联网的飞速发展,网络技术不断融入到反腐的全球浪潮之中,并发挥了超乎想象的作用力和影响力,形成了一股强大的有技术支撑的公众反腐力量。但由于普通公众和侦查机关对于腐败的理解有差别,形成了腐败行为与腐败犯罪之分,如何能够将日趋高涨的网络反腐民间力量与检察机关专门反腐机构有效的结合起来就成为亟待处理的难题,然而不容置疑的是,如果民间反腐与官方反腐、权力反腐与权利反腐两股力量能实现有效结合,我国反腐斗争将会获得实质性进展。     

The limitations of neoliberal logic in the anti-corruption industry: Lessons from Papua New Guinea

To acknowledge concerns about the rising power of the private sector, key international anti-corruption organisations have supported initiatives that emphasise the role that businesses play in corruption. Yet the way these initiatives have impacted the practices and perceptions of anti-corruption organisations in developing countries has received scant attention. As businesses can be key perpetrators of corruption, understanding the way anti-corruption organisations respond to the private sector can highlight the efficacy of anti-corruption efforts. Drawing on interviews with anti-corruption policy makers in Papua New Guinea (PNG) conducted between 2008 and 2009, this article shows how two international anti-corruption organisations perceived and worked with the private sector. It finds that there have been some initiatives designed to address, and raise awareness about private sector corruption in the country, reflecting international trends. At the same time the private sector is viewed, often uncritically, as an anti-corruption champion; this has affected the way anti-corruption organisations engage with businesses operating in the country. This article argues that despite a change in international discourse about the private sector’s role in corruption, in developing countries like PNG, neoliberal logic about the nature of the state still guide anti-corruption activity. These findings have implications for the efficacy of international anti-corruption efforts.     

Combatting institutional corruption: The policy-centered approach

How can institutional corruption be combatted? While recent years have seen a growth in anti-corruption literature, examples of countries rooting out systemic corruption remain few. The lack of success stories has sparked an academic debate about the theoretical foundations of anti-corruption frameworks: primarily between proponents of the principal-agent framework and those seeing systemic corruption as the result of collective-action problems. Through an analysis of current principal-agent and collective action anti-corruption literature, this article adds two additional arguments to the debate: (a) the need to specify what one talks about when talking about systemic corruption and (b) the necessity to move beyond the principal-agent versus collective action frameworks dichotomy towards a policy-centered approach for how to combat institutional corruption. Having outlined how institutional corruption can be seen as one type of systemic corruption, this article shows how a policy-centered approach such as strengthening the appearance standard through an independent public commission can address theoretical mechanisms emphasized in each anti-corruption framework–thus arguing that the frameworks complement rather than rival each other. The article ends by arguing for an anti-corruption discourse acknowledging that a multifaceted problem such as corruption requires multiple frameworks rather than attempts for silver-bullet explanations.

     

The Judiciary as a Critical Linchpin in Nigeria’s Anti-corruption Crusade

Corruption is a vice that is widespread across all nations in the world. Although it is present in almost every country, some countries have been more successful in curbing it more than some others. Nigeria as a country that has been rated poorly by Transparency International consistently in the last 10 years, has taken steps to curb this vice. Some laws have been enacted and some agencies have also been established to implement these laws. Although they are not perfect, the judiciary is expected to enforce these laws. This paper examines some of these laws; it also discusses the judiciary and posits that to avoid the guilty escaping the hand of the law, the judiciary must be dynamic in interpreting anti corruption laws.     

‘Blue walls,’ ‘grey areas’ and ‘cleanups’: Issues in the control of police corruption in England and Wales

This paper examines issues concerned with police corruption and its control in England and Wales. The topic of defining police corruption is addressed, some current areas of risk are described and anti-corruption strategies, particularly those pursued by the London Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), are examined. What appears qualitatively and quantitatively different in the approach of services such as the MPS and Merseyside Police is the use of an adequately resourced, dedicated anti-corruption unit. This strategy has been buttressed by preventative measures involving management/administration and ethics/training. Dedicated units have been controversial, and preventative measures raise questions concerning evaluation. Nevertheless the approach to corruption bears comparison with that adopted by other major police services in other jurisdictions and represents a break with previous and unsuccessful efforts at corruption control in major police forces in England and Wales.     

Lost in transaction. Ensuring the deliverables in development aid

This symposium explores some of the dilemmas of aid funding and the challenges that aid agencies face when defining and implementing aid policies that are mindful of anti-corruption concerns. There are tensions between aid flows, state capacity and development needs that require special attention from donors and raise the ultimate question whether aid is the solution or part of the problem. In other words, does aid improve the lives of peoples in recipient countries or does it help to breed more governance problems? There are equally a series of issues concerning corruption control that need clarifying. What strategies to fight corruption associated to the different aid modalities have been implemented by donors and how successful have these been? These and other questions will be addressed in this publication from different professional and disciplinary angles.     

From global problems to international norms: what does the social construction of a global corruption problem tell us about the emergence of an international anti-corruption norm

This article examines the ontological contestation that is inherent to the emergence of an international anti-corruption norm. First, the article briefly analyses the compatibility of an agenda on the social construction of problems from sociology and the well-established study of norms in constructivist IR. It argues that an analytical shift from the study of norms to the social construction of problems can shed light on the power relations that underlie international norms, and corruption in particular. The article traces the emergence of a global corruption problem up to the early 2000s when scholars have traditionally placed the establishment of an international anti-corruption norm. It first shows the contestation of corruption as a global issue on the level of problem definition, and then, it shows the role of venue shopping and venue shifting in the diffusion of anti-corruption talks and the norm cascade of the 1990s. The article concludes with an analysis of how the social construction of problems challenges the conventional approach of the emergence of an international anti-corruption norm.     

Bureaucrats’ corruption and competition in public administration

Competition in public administration is often advocated as a solution to bureaucrats’ corruption. However, there are no well developed analyses of how competition could succeed and the issue of its detailed design has not been carefully addressed so far. In this paper, we put forward a series of models that help understand what competition in public administration can actually accomplish. We distinguish two different shapes that corruption may take: bribery and extortion, and we demonstrate, under the usual assumption of asymmetric information as to the honesty of the bureaucrats, that while competition is effective in fighting extortion it exacerbates bribery. Given that corruption normally manifests itself simultaneously under the two different shapes, an anti-corruption policy based upon competition is bound to face a serious trade-off: trying to curb one of them through competition implies making the other worse. This result holds, with some differences, under exogenous and endogenous bureaucrats’ “honesty”. The dual aspect of corruption is probably one of the most serious—and so far largely neglected—obstacles to any effective anti-corruption policy.     

职务犯罪特别侦查权探究——以检察机关侦查权的优化为视角

近年来,职务犯罪始终处于易发高发态势,虽然检察机关运用职务犯罪侦查权有力地打击了腐败现象,但由于我国尚未制定专门的反腐败法律,检察机关的职务犯罪侦查权存在诸多缺失,难以适应打击职务犯罪的需要,在一定程度上影响和制约了反腐败工作的深入开展,这与党的要求和民众的期望尚有不小的距离。借鉴国外的职务犯罪特别侦查权,赋予我国检察机关职务犯罪特别侦查权,并对其加以程序控制,才能更有力地打击职务犯罪。     

Protecting integrity at the local level: the role of anticorruption and public management networks

This article argues that anti-corruption agencies at the local-level have been successful in a way that can be evaluated and emulated. A related contention is that corruption control is most effective when the central public integrity agency is part of both a local anticorruption network and a local public management network. Quite reasonably, the international anti-corruption project has focused most time and energy on advocating and assessing efforts made to ensure public integrity at the national level. Baseline studies by scholars and supra-national integrity nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) identify the form of corruption control (if any) adopted by the central government. Key considerations in assessing the status of national anti-corruption agencies (ACAs) are the ones mentioned in the introduction to this special issue: political independence, scope of authority, investigatory powers, position in the national legal/political network, durability, and use of effectiveness measures. Similar taxonomies are deployed by OLAF, Transparency International, Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and by scholars on corruption control.