Research on the Coordination Mechanism between the UN Convention against Corruption and Domestic Laws

Author: Zhen Zhen, Editor-in-Chief
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2007-01-01
Features: As the first legal document in the history of the United Nations to guide the fight against corruption, the United Nations Convention against Corruption (hereinafter referred to as the Convention) has attracted widespread attention. The Chinese people also eagerly hope that the Convention can contribute to the pursuit of corrupt officials and the recovery of stolen assets. However, this utilitarian and simplistic mindset overlooks the support needed at the practical level. Hegel said, "Setting goals should align with objective reality. In this way, the goal is not to reach a new one-sided regulation but to move toward its actualization." Without the foundational research on the coordination between the Convention and domestic laws, discussing the significance and functions of the Convention would merely be an emotional reaction. A deeper exploration of the practical impact brought by the Convention is the direct reason for the establishment and completion of this research project. The extensive content of the Convention makes comprehensive comparative research extremely difficult. We wisely abandoned this approach and chose to focus on key topics, presenting the readers with a collection of six thematic studies. As a collaborative effort, each part of the manuscript reflects the individual characteristics of the researchers. I believe this is determined by the nature of research, which differs from textbooks. The latter requires concise and definitive expressions, while the former demands detailed and meticulous discussion. Within our personal capabilities, we have contributed to a comprehensive argument, and thus, formal stylistic and syntactic aspects have been placed in a secondary position. If readers find the content of this manuscript valuable, it has achieved our purpose. Although we have set the research topics in the order of the Convention's arrangement, this standard is not absolute. For example, Chapter 4s several related provisions. Chapter is entirely a macro-level study, with the Convention merely serving as a targeted sample. The criminal liability mechanism has been a particular focus and effort for criminal law scholars. Given this objective reality, this research project only provides a relatively concise discussion—undoubtedly, the foundation for this conciseness lies in the contributions of several criminal law scholars. It is worth mentioning that we have conducted a certain degree of research on the often-overlooked corporate liability and provided a preliminary analysis of whether unit crimes exist for individual offenses. Of course, as the most closely watched issue of pursuing corrupt officials, we have dedicated two chapters to it. Chapter 5 is a coordinated study on "pursuing people," while Chapter 6 is a study on "pursuing assets." Due to certain loopholes in China's relevant legal system, coordinated research at the practical level is "nitpicking," but from the recommendations we provide, readers can clearly sense our enthusiasm.