Introduction
Corruption respects no borders, knows no economic distinctions and infects all forms of government. In the long run, no country can afford the social, political or economic costs that corruption entails. In recent years with the increased awareness of global commerce, there is increased scrutiny over the questionable practices of executives of multinational corporations. In an effort to establish leverage in developing nations, may company representatives have resulted in the use of practices such as bribery with the understanding of it "being the ways are done" in various regions of the country. Recent investigations into bribery charges in nations such as China, with companies such as Lucent Technologies, forces the governments engaged in international commerce, to enact practices, laws and procedures to create a more ethical global economic environment.
Legal Section
Governing Laws
United States
Prohibitions against official bribery are by no means unique to the United States. What is unique to the United States is that its concern with corruption does not stop with its own officials but extends to the corruption of foreign officials as well. By far the most important, and certainly the best known, reflection of this concern is the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 (FCPA), which imposes criminal penalties on American enterprises that bribe officials of foreign governments. There are several federal statutes that preceded the FCPA, however, and that bear on the behavior of American enterprises abroad. Although these statutes have largely been eclipsed by the FCPA, at least insofar as they might apply to the bribery of foreign officials, they are part of the legal context within which the FCPA is enforced, and from which th ...