Tag Archives: Brooks Hickman

How are non-trial enforcement mechanisms facilitating the resolution of foreign bribery cases?

by Sandrine Hannedouche-Leric, Elisabeth Danon, and Brooks Hickman

A new Study on Resolving Foreign Bribery Cases with Non-Trial Resolutions builds a typology of non-trial resolutions available to the Parties to the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention and takes stock of how these resolutions have been used to resolve foreign bribery cases in recent years.

The Study focuses on key legal, procedural and institutional challenges attached to the use of non-trial resolutions to conclude foreign bribery cases. It provides data demonstrating a clear trend to resolve these cases outside the court room. In particular, it shows that nearly 80% of foreign bribery cases concluded since the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention entered into force 20 years ago have been resolved with a non-trial enforcement vehicle. Relying on data and case examples, it analyses how these instruments have driven the enforcement of foreign bribery laws. In some countries, non-trial resolutions have provided the exclusive means for sanctioning legal persons, while other countries have used non-trial resolutions to impose sanctions in their first-ever foreign bribery resolutions. Continue reading

Legal Person Liability is a Key Component of the Emerging Rules for the Global Economy

by Kathryn Gordon and Brooks Hickman

The liability of legal persons for foreign bribery and related economic offenses is a key feature of the emerging legal infrastructure for the global economy.  Without it, governments face a losing battle in the fight against the bribery of foreign public officials and other complex economic crimes.

In recognition of the essential role that the liability of legal persons plays in combating foreign bribery, Articles 2 and 3 of the Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions (Anti-Bribery Convention) (PDF: 598 KB) require “[e]ach Party … to establish the liability of legal persons for foreign bribery” and to apply “effective, proportionate and dissuasive” penalties to legal persons for foreign bribery. Continue reading