AD ALTA
JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH
CRIMINAL OFFENCES RELATED TO CORRUPTON IN THE SLOVAK REPUBLIC AND THE
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA – COMPARISON STUDY
a
JOZEF ČENTÉŠ,
b
NATÁLIA HANGÁČOVÁ
Comenius University in Bratislava, Šafárikovo nám.
č. 6,
P.O.BOX 313, 810 00 Bratislava, Slovakia
email:
a
jozef.centes@flaw.uniba.sk,
b
hangacova.natalia@gmail.com
The present research was supported by the Slovak Research and Development Agency
under contract no. APVV-19-0102
Efektívnosť prípravného konania - skúmanie,
hodnotenie, kritériá a vplyv legislatívnych zmien/ The efficiency of pre-trial
proceedings – research, evaluation, criteria and influence of legislative changes.
The present research was supported also by the Grant for PhD. students and young
scientists of the Comenius University no. UK/406/2020 Carousel fraud II.
Abstract: Corruption is a phenomenon which influences functioning of state,
government, economy, society as a whole, including the private sector. Therefore,
authors decided to focus on criminal offences related to corruption defined in criminal
codices of the Slovak Republic and the United States of America. The aim of this
article is to underline similarities and differences between these two jurisdictions. The
Slovak Republic and the United States of America differ in many aspects, starting with
history, economy and at last but not least both countries have different legal systems.
The United States of America is a common law country, whereas the Slovak Republic
is a continental law country. The United States of America is democratic country for
over 100 years, on the other hand communism was present in the Slovak Republic
until 1989.
Keywords: corruption, criminal responsibility
1 Introduction
Based on ideas incorporated in international documents
regarding corruption, it is necessary to point out the negative
social aspects of corruption. Corruption threatens the rule of law,
democracy and human rights; undermines good governance,
decency and social justice. It distorts competition; prevents
economic development; threatens stability of democratic
institutions and moral foundations of society. Corruption is able
to undermine trust in government and breed public distrust.
Corruption is not anymore, a national issue, but rather a
transnational phenomenon that affects every civilized society
and every economy. Corruption also leads to inequality where
rich and powerful people have advantage over the rest of the
population. Therefore, its prevention and control require
international cooperation. In fact, rapid exchange of information
and movement of funds are inherent at the global level. The
European community is even more influenced by the dynamic
and free movement of people, goods, capital and services. The
Stockholm programme – an open and secure Europe serving and
protecting citizens 2010/C115/01 (“Stockholm programme”) in
section 4.4.5. states: “The Union must reduce the number of
opportunities available to organised crime as a result of a
globalised economy, in particular during a crisis that is
exacerbating the vulnerability of the financial system, and
allocate appropriate resources to meet these challenges
effectively.”
For these reasons, an effective fight against corruption is not
possible without a comprehensive and multidisciplinary
approach. Corruption is often associated with other forms of
crime, such as organized crime, which is linked to serious
economic crime, including misappropriation of the European
Union financial interests. It is also a well-known fact that bribery
is a phenomenon widespread in international business
operations, including trade and investment, and therefore raises
serious moral and political concerns, undermines effective
corporate governance, and distorts international competition
conditions. Effective tool of combating corruption is
undoubtedly the efficient national criminal law. National
criminal law can broadly sanction corruption in its entirety,
while responding to conventions that take into account
international legal aspect of corruption. Leading international
conventions regarding corruption are United Nations Convention
against Corruption, The United Nations Declaration Against
Corruption and Bribery in International Commercial
Transactions, United Nations Convention against Transnational
Organized Crime and the Protocols, Inter-American Convention
Against Corruption, OECD Convention on Combating Bribery
of Foreign Public Officials in International Business
Transactions and many others.
Anti-corruption efforts may be also observed from Transparency
International activities. Transparency International ranks
countries using corruption perception index. Corruption
perception index is leading global indicator of public sector
corruption. Index closely to 100 represents very clean country
regarding corruption. Index near 0 means highly corrupted
country. Transparency International ranked the United States of
America (“USA” or “United States”) 22
nd
among 180 countries
in 2018 with 71/100 index. In 2017 was index of the United
States 75/100, in 2016 74/100 and in 2015 was the index 76/100.
It seems that level of corruption in the USA fluctuate. The
Slovak Republic is 57
th
out of 180 countries in the ranking. In
2018 was level of corruption in Slovakia 50/100, index was the
same in 2017. During 2016 and 2015 data shows that Slovakia
was less corrupted, when index of the Slovak Republic reached
51/100.
Table 1. Overview of Corruption Perception Index in 180
Countries Monitored by Transparency International in 2018
(Transparency International, 2019)
2 Legislation of the United States of America
Due to the fact that the United States of America is a common
law country, we will refer to common law criminal offences at
first. In general, common law recognized different criminal
offences related to corruption. Firstly, Official Misconduct in
Office is a corrupt behavior by government official while
executing duties in his/her official responsibilities. The
government official has to act in execution of his/her official
responsibilities and with purposeful intent to violate his/her legal
obligation. There are three main types of Official Misconduct in
Office. Malfeasance which refers to a wrongful act, Misfeasance
represents lawful act made in unlawful manner and Nonfeasance
refers to failure to fulfil a duty to act. (Lippman, 2014) Criminal
offence of Official Misconduct in Office is regulated by federal
or/and state statutes. The objective behind this criminal offence
is to prevent government officials from being influenced. Public
officials may be influenced by gifts or money they receive not to
perform their duties in public interest. Public officials shall
follow law and set example for citizens.
Secondly, common law recognized crime of Bribery. Originally,
was crime of bribery limited only to offering money or any item
of value to judges for exchange of taking an official action.
Later, the criminal offence was stretched to any individual
offering a bribe to a judge and with time, to offering the bribe to
judge or public official (Lippman, 2014). Nowadays, crime of
bribery is described more broadly, in comparison to authentic
common law. Crime of bribery will be elaborated further in
detail below.
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