What is wrong with bribery?
Differing definitions of the crime bribery flow from differing accounts of what is wrong with the phenomenon. There are at least four possible accounts of the harm(s) in bribery. Bribery might be said to be harmful because: (i) it involves an inducement to breach of a civil law duty. This is the basis of the position taken in the Draft Corruption Bill with its insistence upon a principal-agent relationship and inducement towards its breach. (ii) the creation of a market in goods or services whose being sold degrades them, or otherwise prevents the proper operation of government. This was the rationale for the earliest corruption statutes – against bribery of judges and magistrates and the sale of offices and commissions, but it would only cover a small area of public sector corruption. (iii) it is an impediment to fair competition in liberalised global markets and consequently a detriment to consumers, producers and economic growth. Much of the evidence about corruption, particularly i
