Corruption remains one of the foremost challenges faced by countries worldwide. Its destructive effects impact societies, economies, and individuals globally, with developing nations bearing the brunt of this widespread issue.

While many countries have implemented anti-corruption regulations, their effectiveness may be limited. To address this gap, the Regulatory Institute presents its Model Law on Corruption.

Download the Model Law on Corruption

Our Model Law serves as a comprehensive guide for regulatory practitioners in drafting and implementing robust anti-corruption measures tailored to their specific legal and cultural contexts.

The Model Law aims to provide a clear and comprehensive framework, outlining responsibilities, defining offences, and establishing stringent penalties for corrupt activities. It is divided into six chapters, each addressing a critical aspect of the fight against corruption. 

Drawing on a wide range of solutions from anti-corruption laws around the world, our Model Law highlights the importance of robust investigation and enforcement mechanisms to deter and address corruption effectively.

The Regulatory Institute has already published an article on Reference Laws and Recommendations for the Fight against Corruption. Interested lawmakers are highly encouraged to consult this article for additional insights and guidance.

In view of the different implementation capacities of jurisdictions, including those of developed economies, the following colour coding is used in this Model Law:

• Green stands for provisions which are “technically easy to implement” or “unavoidable / essential whilst being of medium difficulty to implement”; we thus recommend the green provisions for all jurisdictions.
• The provisions marked in yellow are all of medium difficulty.

The model law is constructed in such a way that it could “stand” with the green provisions alone, but that the sections or provisions in yellow can be added as extension modules.

In the above, we refer to the aspect of technically simple and medium  implementation. This parameter alone should not be the basis on which provisions are included or excluded in a particular regulation. What is more important is the overall quantitative implementation and in particular, the enforcement capacity of the jurisdiction, even very advanced technical jurisdictions should consider this carefully. Hence the following questions need to be answered:

• Do we have the necessary (quantitative) enforcement capacities to enforce all the provisions we deem ideal?
• If not, which provisions shall we mainly focus on in terms of enforcement, where shall we steer our resources?

As a result of this sequence of questions, even some provisions marked in green will need to be eliminated at the end of the day, and this even in technically very advanced jurisdictions. Again, we encourage the regulator to be selective.