Outside the ICC, international treaties directly aimed at tackling corruption, including the UN Convention against Corruption – the only legally binding international anti-corruption multilateral treaty, which entered into force in 2005 – do not offer a robust corruption enforcement mechanism either.
One perceived weakness in the UNCAC is that state parties tend to focus on implementation of the convention at the national level rather than enforcement, with a weak, intergovernmental, peer-monitoring mechanism in place. Moreover, anticorruption agencies, first given recognition by the UNCAC, are often ineffective in kleptocratic regimes in circumstances where political influence is exercised over the judiciary and law enforcement.
Advantages of an IACC
US judge Mark Wolf, one of the leading proponents of the establishment of an IACC and chair of the non-profit Integrity Initiatives International, which has led the campaign for the establishment of an IACC, has suggested that an IACC could afford an unbiased platform in which to consider corruption matters.
Wolf has urged that an IACC would impose a higher authority on domestic anti-corruption frameworks and judicial systems, and provide a means of extraterritorial prosecution and punishment of countries that are unwilling or unable to enforce their own laws against powerful corrupt actors.
Perhaps most controversially, it has also been suggested that the activities of national anti-corruption agencies – including anti-corruption courts – would come within the purview of the IACC if they are not operating genuinely, providing the IACC with an additional monitoring function.
The future
Once the IACC Treaty Committee has produced a draft IACC treaty, this will be considered by interested governments and civil society actors. A wider consultation will follow.
However, the IACC will remain only an aspiration unless and until there is sufficient political will to ratify a treaty creating the necessary international framework. This would present a significant potential hurdle given the current climate of state reluctance to divest power to international bodies.
It is clear that without a radical intervention in the existing anticorruption enforcement landscape, trillions of dollars will continue to be lost to corrupt practices each year, and the global community will continue to pay the price.
Maria Cronin is a partner, Craig Hogg is an associate, and Charlotte Dormon is a trainee solicitor at Peters & Peters
