Corruption and legal certainty; the case of Albania and the Netherlands Implementation of the Criminal Law Convention on Corruption in a transitional and consolidated democracy

Abstract

A discrepancy in corruption levels may be observed between Western European states and the post-communist states of Central and (South) Eastern Europe. In order to find out whether this discrepancy corresponds with a discrepancy in legal provisions, we embarked upon a comparative exercise aimed at exploring the implementation of the Criminal Law Convention on Corruption in a consolidated Western European democracy (the Netherlands) and a young South Eastern European democracy (Albania). Obviously, compliance with international conventions is highly important for addressing the worldwide and cross-border nature of corruption. Our paper focuses on the clarity and accessibility of the substantive criminal legislation concerning corruption from the point of view of legal certainty. We successively discuss the Criminal Law Convention on Corruption, the Albanian provisions on the passive bribery of public officials and the Dutch provisions on the passive bribery of public officials. It is concluded that a generally good legal framework seems to be in place in both countries and that the anti-corruption legislation is on the whole in line with the requirements of the Convention. Some problems may be observed in relation to legal certainty. However, it seems that the discrepancies in the legislation and the problems with legal certainty are relatively minor and therefore can hardly clarify the discrepancy in corruption levels.