Wharton-SMU Research Center

In-House Seminar

Guest Speaker:
Philip M. NICHOLS
Associate Professor of Legal Studies, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

Date & Venue:
Date: 7 July 2004, Wednesday
Time: 4.00pm-5.00pm
Venue: Eu Tong Sen Building, Level 1, Seminar Room 3,
Singapore Management University
469 Bukit Timah Road, Singapore 259756
(Location Map)

Topic:
Indicia of Moral Imperialism in Laws Implementing the OECD Antibribery Convention

About the Seminar:
The Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development’s 1997 Convention on Combatting Bribery of Foreign Government Officials in International Business Transactions was heralded as a watershed event in the international effort to control corruption. Not all scholars, however, applauded the Convention – some condemned it on the grounds that it constituted moral imperialism perpetrated by Western-oriented countries against less wealthy countries. The applause and the criticism of the convention were largely based on the idea of the convention rather than on any actual laws. There now exists, however, a corpus of implementing laws sufficient to evaluate claims such as moral imperialism. This paper develops a definition of “moral imperialism” that is more precise than the general use of the phrase, and using that definition suggests characteristics that might indicate that a law is morally imperialistic. The paper then discusses the extent to which these indicators are found in the more than twenty sets of laws that implement the OECD Convention. Countries enacting these laws include Asian, Latin American and transition countries as well as industrialized, Western-oriented countries. The paper then evaluates the charge of moral imperialism and the implications of that charge in creating regimes to support transnational relationships.

Chairperson:
Austin I Pulle
Associate Professor of Law, School of Business, Singapore Management University

Registration:
This seminar is free. Please register early. (Admission on a first-come-first-served basis.)
For registration, please click here (Registration closes on 6 July 2004, Tuesday)

Enquiries:
Ms. Lim Lih Yeng
Email: lylim@smu.edu.sg, Tel: 6822-0197
Ms. Priscilla Cheng
Email: priscillacheng@smu.edu.sg, Tel: 6822-0383