UK Bribery Act: The Legal Regulation Of The Commercial Bribery

The UK Bribery Act has achieved effective results in the governance of commercial bribery.Although there are some problems in the bill,such as the legitimacy of jurisdiction expansion,the legitimacy of strict liability setting,and the fairness of unlimited fine,the idea of prevention is better than punishment,and the spirit of paying attention to enterprise compliance,which has certain reference significance for China’s criminal policy.Especially in the aspect of effective procedure defense,the bill and relevant guidelines put forward six basic principles on how to judge effective compliance,namely,the ability of enterprise internal system to prevent risks and report risks.In the aspect of substantive law,the full procedural defense provides a reference for our country to refine the compliance policy guidelines.We can consider the combination of effective compliance to identify the subjective intent of the unit,and take the effectiveness of compliance as the cause of lighter punishment for the unit crime.In terms of procedural law,we can learn from the delayed prosecution system reached by the serious fraud investigation office(SFO)and the enterprises involved in the case,and gradually promote the judicial reform pilot of "compliance non prosecution".The first part of this paper briefly introduces the legislative background,main systems and features of the anti bribery act in Britain.The consequences of bribery are often global.Transnational commercial bribery is usually carried out in multiple jurisdictions.Therefore,the prohibition of international bribery depends on collective action among countries,but international cooperation is often limited.In this context,the British anti bribery act chooses the extraterritorial jurisdiction to solve the systemic problem of transnational bribery,that is,to make the domestic anti bribery act have extraterritorial effect through legislation and provide unilateral public supervision for international bribery.At the same time,the bill stipulates three main crimes of bribery crime: bribery and bribery,bribery of foreign public officials,and prevention of bribery dereliction of duty.Generally speaking,the British anti bribery law is characterized by the expansion of foreign jurisdiction and the strict liability of legal persons,and the latter has more reference significance for China’s domestic law.Therefore,the second part of this paper focuses on the prevention of bribery dereliction of duty,and further analyzes the imputation mode of corporate crime under British law.The mode of criminal responsibility of corporate crime develops from the principle of identification to the organizational responsibility embodied in the bill.As for the standard of identification,we should pay attention to the criminal intention of the executives of commercial organizations to whether the commercial organizations establish effective internal compliance procedures.According to the provisions of the bill,if the related person of a business organization constitutes the crime of bribery,it is presumed that the business organization has not fulfilled its regulatory responsibility.The parent company of a multinational company will also bear strict responsibility for the actions of its subsidiaries.The regulation of corporate bribery in British law gradually goes out of the limitation of individual responsibility and legalizes the responsibility of preventing bribery from the source of commercial organizations,which has some enlightenment for China’s criminal policy.The third part of this paper focuses on the significance of the bill to China.The full procedural defense against bribery and the six principles of compliance in Britain can be used for reference in the reform of procedural law and substantive law in China.It is suggested that China should consider the combination of effective compliance,improve the existing criminal constitution,penalty discretion and litigation rules.