Anticorruption, Cultural Norms, and Implications for the APUNCAC

Danny Singh
Additional contact information
Danny Singh: Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Teesside University, Middlesbrough TS1 3BX, UK

Laws, 2021, vol. 10, issue 2, 1-17

Abstract: Corruption is a phenomenon that has received global attention from academics, policy makers and international donors. Corruption may be defined as the abuse of power for private gain. Activities include bribery, extortion, rent-seeking behaviour, cronyism, patronage, nepotism, embezzlement, graft and engagement with criminal enterprises. However, patronage, nepotism and gift giving are frequently viewed in many Asian and African cultures as acceptable practices that promote efficiency and smooth relationships. This article examines these practices in contexts including Afghanistan, Papua New Guinea, Russia, China and South Asia, discusses various rationales for these practices, and seeks to understand how these practices can be reconciled with international efforts to combat corruption. This article focuses on the implications with regard to the Anticorruption Protocol to the United Nations Convention against Corruption (APUNCAC) and the proposal to establish a body of United Nations (UN) inspectors to investigate charges of corruption and refer cases to dedicated domestic anticorruption courts. This article suggests that UN inspectors and international norms against corruption are not incompatible with traditional cultural practices. This article draws upon the experiences of Hong Kong and Singapore, where corruption was endemic, to demonstrate that local cultural norms can be rapidly changed when independent inspectors are established and receive support from institutions that are free from manipulation by domestic authorities.

Keywords: corruption; international public law; governance; rule of law; culture (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D78 E61 E62 F13 F42 F68 K0 K1 K2 K3 K4 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2075-471X/10/2/23/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2075-471X/10/2/23/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jlawss:v:10:y:2021:i:2:p:23-:d:532123

Access Statistics for this article

Laws is currently edited by Ms. Heather Liang

More articles in Laws from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().