Towards New Governance Strategies for Preventing
Corruption: Law, Theory and Practice
CALL FOR CONFERENCE PAPERS
Conference Venue: Toronto
Conference Dates: September 14th and September 15th, 2017
BACKGROUND NOTE
The global fight against large-scale corruption has generated widespread attention and action
from governments, NGOs, businesses and academics. But is all this discussion and action
accomplishing any reduction in corruption, or is it little more than new laws and policies with
no teeth, no resources for enforcement and no will to implement from political and business
elites?
While it is impossible to craft a generic “one-size-fits-all” solution to address corruption without
accounting for variations in national and industry contexts as well as societal norms and
informal institutions that perpetuate and reinforce these norms, what is clear is that corruption
is a phenomenon that prevents entities, be it government or private sector, from achieving
their legitimate objectives, such as delivery of public goods in the case of the government or
maximizing shareholder value in the case of corporations. Large scale acts of corruption by
officers of a firm may result in civil and criminal liability and adversely impact its reputation. All
these issues can be seen as issues of corporate governance broadly defined.
One of the key challenges of governance is that of “integrity,” reflected in individual, company
and cultural commitment to anti-corruption ethos. Given this emphasis placed on “integrity,”
especially when it comes to development discourse, it is not surprising that the very term
-2integrity is often used as an antonym for corruption. At the same time, the concept of integrity
and behaviours that deviate from this principle, are frequently shaped by the interplay between
formal legal principles and structures and informal societal and industry norms that develop as
a response mechanism to address low levels of trust in public institutions and formal laws.
Thus, corruption type behaviours become part and parcel of these informal norms, further
entrenching them and making the process of formal rule creation, corporate governance and
compliance a challenging exercise. This conference aims to examine a variety of methods
across jurisdictions and disciplines for advancing formal anti-corruption laws and norms that
would impact, advance and entrench the formation of informal anti-corruption norms and
values – all contributing to better governance.
CALL FOR PAPERS:
We invite papers from a wide variety of perspectives – legal, social, economic and philosophical
– on topics that may fall within one or more of the following corruption prevention themes. The
bullets within each theme are simply a few examples of possible topics but are in no way meant
to be an exhaustive list.
THEME 1 – UNDERSTANDING CORRUPTION
Understanding the nature and scope of corruption is an essential step in developing
preventable strategies.
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What do we know about the factors, circumstances, and influences which drive and/or
facilitate corruption
What public and private segments/sectors of our economy are most susceptible to
corruption and why
THEME 2 – PUBLIC SECTOR INTEGRITY: EXAMINATION OF ESSENTIAL COMPONENTS FOR ACHIEVING
PUBLIC SECTOR INTEGRITY
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Integrity Oaths and Codes of Conduct
Conflicts of Interest Rules
Regulating Lobbying
Financial Contributions to Politicians and/or Political Parties
Transparent Procurement Processes
How best to achieve effective whistleblowing programs
THEME 3 – CORPORATE GOVERNANCE: RETHINKING THE VIABILITY OF VOLUNTARY CORPORATE
COMPLIANCE WITH ANTI-CORRUPTION STANDARDS
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Can voluntary compliance standards be effective and if so, how
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What are best practices in regard to anti-corruption compliance programs
What are the best approaches to due diligence in the context of compliance programs
What are the essential components of an effective whistleblowing program
THEME 4 – CORRUPTION REMEDIES: WHAT WORKS?
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Criminal Remedies – Fines, Imprisonment, Supervision Orders, Disgorgement
Administrative Remedies
o Inspections, Audits, etc.
o Administrative Penalties
Civil Remedies
o Law suits (e.g. torts, contracts, unjust enrichment etc.)
THEME 5 – CRIMINAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE ENFORCEMENT: CHALLENGES AND LESSONS
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What are the essential requirements for successful enforcement of anti-corruption
standards
o Is an independent, permanent anti-corruption commission an effective approach
How do we ensure adequate enforcement personnel, budgets, and training for anticorruption law enforcers
What other barriers exist to effective anti-corruption law enforcement
THEME 6 – ANTI-CORRUPTION PROGRAMS IN BRICS COUNTRIES
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Political and legal anti-corruption reforms and their impact on social perceptions of
corruption
Long-term sustainability of current anti-corruption measures and strategies to ensure
institutional commitment to anti-corruption measures
Adoption of international anti-corruption measures/best-practices into local contexts
Measures to address the “gap” between formal anti-corruption measures and informal
“normalization” of corruption.
PAPER ABSTRACTS
Please submit a one page abstract (maximum 500 words) of your proposed paper by February
28, 2017 to [email protected].
Participants will receive notification of acceptance of their paper for presentation by March 20,
2017. Draft papers must be submitted by August 14, 2017, one month prior to the conference.
Final papers must be submitted by November 14, 2017.
FUNDING
-4It is expected that most participants will be able to cover their own travel and accommodation
expenses. The conference organizers hope to be able to provide some travel subsidies for some
participants based on need.
PUBLICATION
The conference organizers expect to publish final papers in a special law review issue or edited
book collection.
ORGANIZERS
Professor Gerry Ferguson
Faculty of Law, University of Victoria
[email protected]
Professor Suvrajyoti Gupta
Jindal Global Law School
[email protected]
Professor Alexandra Orlova
Ryerson University
[email protected]
Professor Poonam Puri
Osgoode Hall Law School
York University
[email protected]