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JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH
and substantial interest, before any department, agency, court,
officer, or commission. Whereas section 203 (b)(2) of the U.S.
Code describes direct and indirect active corruption of giving,
promising, or offering any compensation for any representational
services rendered or to be rendered to the specific person at a
time when such person is or was an officer or employee
of the
District of Columbia. For perpetrator to be criminally liable, it is
required that he or she committed crime described in section 203
(b)(2) of the U.S. Code knowingly. From the distinction it is
clear that the District of Columbia has a special status.
Section 203 (c) of the U.S. Code contains restrictions of criminal
liability of special Government employee under section 203 (a)
and (b) of the U.S. Code. The special Government employee is
defined in section 202 (a) of the U.S. Code. Moreover, section
203 (d) and (e) of the U.S. Code enumerates exceptions from
criminal responsibility for above-mentioned criminal behaviors
applicable to officer or employee, and special Government
employee. Section 203 (f) of the U.S. Code reads that nothing in
section 203 shall prevent an individual from giving testimony
under oath or from making statements
required to be made under
penalty of perjury.
Section 224 of the U.S. Code
Section 224 (a) of the U.S. Code describes actus reus resting in
carrying into effect, attempting to carry into effect, or conspiring
with any other person to carry into effect any scheme in
commerce to influence, in any way, by bribery any
sporting
contest. Person is criminally liable when actus reus is fulfilled
with knowledge that the purpose of such scheme is to influence
the contest by bribery.
When we compare the criminal offence of Bribery of public
officials and witnesses and criminal offence of Compensation to
Members of Congress, officers, and others in matters affecting
the Government and criminal offence of Bribery in sporting
contests, each of them uses different terms. Bribery in sporting
contests refers to term “bribe”, whereas Bribery of public
officials and witnesses refers to “anything of value” and
Compensation to Members of Congress, officers, and others in
matters affecting the Government uses term “compensation”.
Also, the FCPA refers to term “anything of value”. Each of
these crimes belongs to group of criminal offences related to
corruption. Single term used throughout the criminal offences of
corruption would be more consistent. Using different terms may
cause confusion in orientation in the U.S. Code. Eventually, it
may hamper principle of legality.
The term “sporting contest” refers to contest in any sport which
must be publicly announced before its occurrence. It is not
determining if the contest takes place between individuals or
teams of contestants, nor if they are professionals or amateurs.
From this definition it is clear that the aim is to prevent persons
from profiting on in advance agreed deals.
The Slovak criminal code does not contain definition of contest
in connection to criminal offence of Sports corruption.
Commentaries refer to special law, section 3 g) of the act no.
440/2015 Coll. on sports
. The criminal offence of Sports
corruption is newly established criminal offence in the Slovak
criminal code.
Section 224 (b) of the U.S. Code underlines the fact that
perpetrator may be held criminally liable for criminal offence
regulated in federal statute and state statute at the same time. The
section reads: “This section shall not be construed as indicating
an intent on the part of Congress to occupy the field in which
this section operates to the exclusion of a law of
any State, territory, Commonwealth, or possession of the United
States, and no law of any State, territory, Commonwealth, or
possession of the United States, which would be valid in the
absence of the section shall be declared invalid, and no local
authorities shall be deprived of any jurisdiction over
any offense
over which they would have jurisdiction in the
absence of this section.” In the United States of America there
exists concept of Dual sovereignty. States governments and
federal government are separate sovereigns. Person can be
prosecuted for the same criminal offence according to federal
law and state law. The federal and state governments may both
prosecute offender for the same criminal conduct, if the behavior
constitutes criminal offence under federal as well as states laws.
Concept of dual sovereignty allows prosecution on both levels,
without violating the constitutional protection. Double jeopardy
is a basic principle of the criminal proceedings, also incorporated
in the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution. In
December 2018 liberal and conservative judges of the U.S.
Supreme Court appeared to discuss the concept of dual
sovereignty. After the debate status quo was maintained.
Principle of dual sovereignty may be demonstrated on case of
Roberto Miramontes Roman, who was convicted of murder of
on-duty county sheriff’s deputy. Roberto Miramontes Roman
was acquitted in proceedings before state court of Utah.
However, the U.S. government charged Roman for the same
crime, since the murder constitute criminal offence under state as
well as federal law.
3 Legislation of the Slovak Republic
Provisions on corruption, were incorporated into the Slovak
criminal code in order to fulfill obligations of the Slovak
Republic under international treaties and documents. In
particular, obligations arising from European union membership
(e.g. 1997 Convention on fighting corruption involving officials
of the European union or officials of Member States and the
2003 Framework Decision on combating corruption in the
private sector), membership in Council of Europe (e.g. Council
of Europe Criminal Law Convention on Corruption) including
United Nations and OECD. The Treaty on the Functioning of the
European Union (“TFEU”) establishes limits of the European
Union in the area of corruption. Article 83 (1) TFEU states “The
European Parliament and the Council may, by means of
directives adopted in accordance with the ordinary legislative
procedure, establish minimum rules concerning the definition of
criminal offences and sanctions in the areas of particularly
serious crime with a cross-border dimension resulting from the
nature or impact of such offences or from a special need to
combat them on a common basis. These areas of crime are the
following: terrorism, trafficking in human beings and sexual
exploitation of women and children, illicit drug trafficking, illicit
arms trafficking, money laundering, corruption, counterfeiting of
means of payment, computer crime and organised crime”.
According to European Commission public opinion, 60% of
European Union businesses agree with the statement that bribery
and the use of connections is often the easiest way to obtain
certain public services. Moreover 74% of businesses agree that
favoritism and corruption hamper business competition. We
observe a slight increase from 2015 when 68% of businesses
agreed with this statement. (European Commission, Businesses’
attitudes towards corruption in the EU, 2017).
In the Slovak Republic, criminal offences associated with
corruption are incorporated in chapter 8 ‘Criminal Offences
Against Public Order’ of the third part named ‘Corruption’ of
the act no. 300/2005 Coll. Criminal code of the Slovak Republic.
This part of the Slovak criminal code contains 5 criminal
offences described in sections 328 to 336b of the Slovak
criminal code. Criminal offence of Receiving a bribe is regulated
in sections 328 – 330 of the Slovak criminal code. Criminal
offence of Bribery is regulated in sections 332 – 334 of the
Slovak criminal code. Section 336 regulates Indirect corruption;
section 336a regulates Election corruption and section 336b of
the Slovak criminal code governs Sports corruption.
Bribe is essential term when it comes to corruption legislation in
the Slovak Republic. Bribe is defined in section 131 (3) of the
Slovak criminal code as thing or any other performance of
material or non-material nature to which there is no legal claim.
Judicial practice further specifies bribe as an unjustified
advantage that bribed or with his/her consent other person
receives. Unjustified advantage rests in direct property benefit,
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