AD ALTA
JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH
and none of other advanced democratic countries
1
has inspired
from it. (Robert A. Dahl, 2001, p 43) It is different in many
aspects, starting from unequal representation to presidential
system. Nevertheless, from our point of view, the Slovak
Republic could get inspired at least by the article II, section 4 of
the U.S. Constitution.
In the next chapter we will discuss illegal corrupt practices.
However, in the United States of America there are many legal
ways of exchanging money for favors in politics. Therefore, in
2011 Trevor Potter in consultation with political strategists,
democracy reform leaders and constitutional attorneys drafted
American Anti-Corruption Act which serves as a model
legislation. This model legislation encourages fight against
political bribery and aims at ending secret donors who fund
political advertisements. It is a very brief statute which captures
the essence of the matter. First city which approved this anti-
corruption act was Tallahassee, Florida in 2014. In the United
States of America there is also Modal Penal Code. It is worth
consideration whether this approach of drafting model statutes
would be applicable on the European Union level.
U.S. CODE
Generally, criminal offences of corruption are integrated among
criminal offences against public administration and
administration of justice. Criminal offences associated with
corruption are regulated in chapter 11 ‘Bribery, Graft, and
Conflicts of Interest’ of the 18 United States Code, but not only
in this chapter. Also, chapter 31, section 666 Theft or bribery
concerning programs receiving Federal funds fall within
corruption criminal offences. The list of criminal offences
related to corruption is extensive in comparison to criminal
offences enshrined in the act no. 300/2005 Coll. Criminal code
of the Slovak Republic (“Slovak criminal code”). The U.S. Code
describes great number of criminal offences related to
corruption. For purpose of this article, we have selected only
three criminal offences to make the comparison more detailed.
Criminal offences regulated in section 201 and section 203 of the
U.S. Code refer to corruption of public officials. The U.S. Code
contains more criminal offences related to corruption of public
officials, e.g. section 205 or section 210 of the U.S. Code.
Further, we will focus on section 224 of the U.S. Code regarding
sports bribery.
Regarding corruption of the highest-ranking public officials, we
would like to draw attention to the case of the United States of
America v. Rod Blagojevich and John Harris. Rod Blagojevich
was politician, who served as 40
th
Governor of Illinois until his
impeachment, conviction and removal from office in 2009. Rod
Blagojevich convictions included seeking cash in exchange for
an appointment to the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Barack
Obama when he was elected president in 2008. On January 9,
2009 the Illinois House of Representatives voted to impeach Rod
Blagojevich (votes: 114-1). On January 29, 2009 the Illinois
Senate votes unanimously to remove Rod Blagojevich and to bar
him from holding political office in Illinois again. He is now
serving 14 years in federal prison, since in April 2018 the U.S.
Supreme Court decided not to hear Rod Blagojevich appeal.
Rod Blagojevich and John Harris were convicted of violating
sections 1341,1343, 1346 and 1349 of Title 18, United States
Code. Count two rested in violation of sections 666(a)(1)(B) and
(2) of Title 18, United States Code.
According to 720 ILCS 5 section 33-3(c) “A public officer or
employee or special government agent convicted of violating any
provision of this Section forfeits his or her office or employment
or position as a special government agent. In addition, he or she
commits a Class 3 felony.” Pursuant to criminal laws of the State
of Illinois 720 ILCS 5 section 33-1(d) “A person commits
bribery when: he or she receives, retains or agrees to accept any
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Advanced democratic countries are countries steadily democratic at least since 1950
(e.g. United Kingdom, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Germany, Israel,
Austria, Belgium, Australia, France, Italy, Japan and 8 other countries).
property or personal advantage which he or she is not
authorized by law to accept knowing that the property or
personal advantage was promised or tendered with intent to
cause him or her to influence the performance of any act related
to the employment or function of any public officer, public
employee, juror or witness.” The court in its decision also stated
that pursuant to Article VIII, Section 1(a) of the Constitution of
the State of Illinois, public funds, property and credit shall be
used only for public purposes.
During analysis of provision of both criminal codices we have
noticed that sanctions set in the U.S. Code are significantly
different to those set in the Slovak criminal code. The concept of
sanctions also varies within the U.S. Code. In certain sections of
the U.S. Code sanctions vary based on form of fault. Sanctions
depends on whether criminal offences are concluded willfully or
not. Willful engagement in criminal offence of Compensation to
Members of Congress, officers, and others in matters affecting
the Government would be sanctioned by imprisonment not
exceeding 5 years or fine or combination of both, otherwise the
perpetrator would be punished by imprisonment not exceeding
one year or fine or combination of both. Besides, according to
section 216 of the U.S. Code, person engaging in conduct
constituting the offence under sections 203, 204, 205, 207, 208,
or 209 shall be subject to civil penalty not exceeding $50,000 for
each violation or the amount of compensation which the person
received or offered for the prohibited conduct, whichever
amount is greater. In addition, district court may issue an order
prohibiting person from engaging in such conduct (criminal
offences set in sections 203, 204, 205, 207, 208, or 209). Section
203 of the U.S. Code refers to sanctions set in section 216.
However, some provisions of the U.S. Code contain sanctions
directly in its text. Conduct prohibited under section 201 (b) of
the U.S. Code shall be punished by fine or imprisonment not
exceeding fifteen years, or both. Additionally, person may be
disqualified from holding any office of honor, trust, or profit
under the United States. Perpetrator committing an offence under
section 201 (c) of the U.S. Code shall be punished by fine or
imprisoned for not more than two years, or both.
The Slovak criminal code recognizes wide range of sanctions. It
offers sanctions such as imprisonment, fine, home imprisonment,
compulsory work, forfeiture of thing, forfeiture of property,
prohibition of certain activity, prohibition of residence,
prohibition to participate in public undertakings, expulsion, loss
of honorary titles and honors, loss of military and other rank.
The Slovak criminal law does not recognize penalty of removal
from office or discrimination from holding an office in future.
Only two of the above-mentioned are applicable to the criminal
offences of corruption. Corruption criminal offences are
prosecuted by the most severe penalty, penalty of imprisonment
or alternatively, by forfeiture of property. The penalty of
forfeiture of property is only applicable to selected criminal
offences. When sentencing perpetrator for committing crime of
Receiving a bribe under section 328 (2) of the Slovak criminal
code the court may order forfeiture of property according to
section 58 (2) of the Slovak criminal code. The only condition is
that the offender has acquired assets at least to a significant
extent (exceeding EUR 26,600) by criminal activity or from
proceeds originating in crime. Also, when sentencing the
perpetrator for criminal offence of Receiving a bribe under
section 328 (3) or 329 (3) or criminal offence of Bribery under
section 334 (2) of the Slovak criminal code, the court may order
punishment of forfeiture of property according to 58 (3) of the
Slovak criminal code, hence, without limitation to origin of
money.
In the Slovak Republic, it is possible to put to use the institute of
Effective regret. Effective regret may be used only in connection
to corruption criminal offences regulated under section 332 or
333 and 336 (2) of the Slovak criminal code. The perpetrator
will not be prosecuted for these criminal offences (crime of
Bribery and Indirect corruption) if the perpetrator gave or
promised the bribe only because he or she was asked to do so
and he or she voluntarily without delay notified the law
enforcement authority or police corps; the soldier may make this
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