Home Countries and Transnational Bribery: China’s Changing Approach

In 1999, Professor Philip Nichols argued that FCPA-style home country laws are efficient in combating transnational bribery, unlike host country regulation and corporate self-regulation. Observing feeble results obtained in 15 years of OECD Anti-bribery Convention, we find arguments for amending this assertion; home countries, aside from enforcing their own laws banning foreign bribery, should reconsider the classical ways of fighting transnational corruption, by helping host governments in their anti-corruption efforts and by encouraging their own corporations to join international dialogic webs. After presenting an original analysis of the reasons behind the limited impact of FCPA-style action, we then further arguments for the two alternative solutions backed by home states, looking respectively at the spectacular results of the anti-corruption campaign in Romania with US support, and at China's recent position that her corporations should adhere to international private standards on foreign bribery.