Bribery

Bribery

Bribery

Bribery, in law, the illegal influencing of any person in the exercise of a public duty through the payment of money or anything of value. In the code set down by the Babylonian king Hammurabi, bribery was a punishable offense. By modern common law and statute, the tenderer and the solicitor of bribes are equally culpable. In the United States bribery and attempted bribery are defined by the federal government and by most of the states as felonies, punishable in many states by imprisonment. Many states also forbid the bribery of labor union agents, business representatives, athletes, jury witnesses, and voters. See Electoral Reform. (1)

Bribery in International Trade

Meaning of Bribery, according to the Dictionary of International Trade (Global Negotiator): Giving or promising money or other valuable consideration toward the end of corrupting a person’s behaviour. While the term implies illegality, each society has its own rules about what constitutes the acceptability of such payments. Moral consideration aside, bribery is an entrenched part of international business and trade.

Corruption and Bribery

In relation to the corruption and bribery and constitutional law, Chen Siyuan and Sui Yi Siong[1] made the following observation: In popular expression, and even in a number of scholarly works, the terms ‘corruption’ and ‘bribery’ have been treated as synonyms with little difference in meaning (Boersma). However, as explained below, the two terms do have distinct meanings. The word ‘corruption’ traces its roots to the Latin word corruptus, which means ‘to break’ (Nicholls). As explained by the UK Law Commission’s consultation paper ‘Legislating the Criminal Code: Corruption’ (15 January 1997), the verb ‘to corrupt’ means ‘to destroy or pervert the integrity or fidelity of (a (…)

Bribery

Embracing mainstream international law, this section on bribery explores the context, history and effect of the area of the law covered here.

Resources

Further Reading

  • The entry “bribery” in the Parry and Grant Encyclopaedic Dictionary of International Law (currently, the Encyclopaedic Dictionary of International Law, 2009), Oxford University Press

Resources

Notes and References

  1. Max Planck Encyclopedia of Comparative Constitutional Law, Chen Siyuan, Sui Yi Siong, “Corruption and Bribery” (2018, Germany, United Kingdom)

See Also

  • Corruption
  • Bribery
  • Criminal penalties

Resources

Notes and References

  1. Encarta Online Encyclopedia

See Also

Criminal Law: Crimes Against Government: Bribery

Introduction to Bribery

A common law misdemeanor, bribery is now generally classified as a statutory felony. Bribery is defined as giving or promising to give a public official something of value with a corrupt intent to influence the official in the discharge of his or her official duty. The public official who solicits or accepts anything of value or a promise of something valuable, accompanied by a corrupt intent to influence the performance of his or her public duty, also commits bribery.

The common law definition limited bribery to conduct concerning the judiciary, but most modern statutes have extended it to include all public officials in the judicial, executive, and legislative branches of the federal, state, county, and municipal governments. Modern statutes often expand the scope of bribery even further to include similar conduct relating to persons who are not public officials-for example, athletes paid by gamblers to intentionally perform poorly in games.” (1)

Resources

Notes and References

Guide to Bribery

In this Section

Crimes Against the Government (including Treason, Perjury and Bribery)

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