The culture variable vis-à-vis anti-bribery law: a grey area in transnational corporate criminal liability

Cross-border transactions are generating corresponding globalisation of law enforcement efforts. Culture has significantly influenced the legal analysis of anti-bribery law. With the increase of transnational bribery, benefits from globalisation will be undermined unless an effective legal regime can mitigate the harm of bribery. It is perceived that corruption in China is more prevalent than in the West given its embedded place in Chinese culture. It is further alleged that Chinese multinational companies (MNCs) are taking advantage of an unlevel playing field, as they are not subject to stringently-enforced anti-bribery laws. This hypothesis creates a myriad of anti-bribery problems in terms of legislation and enforcement, which particularly manifest in China’s perceived cultural toleration of bribery. Cultural assumptions undermine the global anti-bribery regime and compromise potential collaborative anti-bribery efforts across jurisdictions in a rapidly globalizing world. The Chinese culture does not necessarily impede China’s criminalisation of paying bribes to foreign officials. It is argued that the cultural role should not be overestimated, otherwise the hazard of the ethnocentric engagement with the Chinese culture would affect the ability of foreign MNCs to integrate their global compliance programmes. Multinationals can only mitigate their exposure to criminal liability globally, provided that they comply robustly with anti-bribery laws of both home and host jurisdictions

Assessing the impact of IPRs on development: A view from the developing world

During the last years developed countries succeeded in introducing intellectual property rights into the international agenda. Developing countries were unwilling to adopt policies to protect intellectual assets since price increases of patented products restrict their consumption to certain population groups. In the case of intellectual property rights in the health industry, developed countries have understood that the level of protection reached at the WTO is insufficient and they have sought to harden the rules through bilateral agreements. This paper considers the benefit for developing countries to reach regional agreements between them and negotiate in block with developed countries. Copyright (C) 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

Consumer-Based Carbon Reduction Incentives: A Proposed Mixed Incentive Scheme for Reducing Co2 Emissions From Transport

To be cost effective the abatement greenhouse gases should be spread across the spectrum of emission sources. While energy production generates the largest share of greenhouse gases, emissions produced by vehicular transport in Australia is still a significant contributor and should bear at least some burden of abatement. Approaches to reducing greenhouse gases have tended thus far to focus on industry. In the transport sector, this industry-based approach has focussed on emission standards. But to be truly cost effective, incentives to reduce emissions need to be targeted at the point of use, by both industry and the private individuals. This paper explores the benefits and limitations of adopting a mixed incentive scheme applied to fuel consumers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from transport. The proposed consumer-based carbon reduction incentive scheme (CBCRI) incorporates elements of tradeable permits, carbon taxes and emission reduction subsidies.</p