Report No. 258
Chapter III
Bribery Laws in other Jurisdictions
3.1 Several jurisdictions have enacted domestic legislations in pursuance of the UNCAC. The application of these legislations extends to national public officials, citizens, foreign citizens and in limited number of circumstances, to foreign public officials and officials of public international organisations. While a number of countries have enacted new comprehensive legislations covering corruption of national and foreign public officials as well as private corruption, others have incorporated these offences into existing laws.
Most countries have not enacted law pursuant to paragraph 2 of Article 16 of the UNCAC, which is a directory provision. Bribery laws in 10 jurisdictions are discussed below for a better understanding of the scope of Article 16 of the UNCAC. Countries have been chosen in a manner that provides a representative sample - major common law jurisdictions, sub-continental nations, and other jurisdictions with notable approaches towards compliance with Article 16 for which authoritative country reports are available.