Jan Dunin-Wasowicz, Vice Chair of the Anti-Corruption Law Interest Group of the American Society of International Law (ASIL), contributes today’s post, which announces a conference that might interest GAB readers:

The ASIL Anti-Corruption Law Interest Group, Sciences Po Law School, and the Zicklin Center for Business Ethics Research of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania are organizing an international symposium on the “Transnationalization of Anti-Corruption Law.” The conference will take place at Sciences Po in Paris, France, on Thursday and Friday 6-7 December 2018. The organizers are accepting paper proposals until 23 July 2018.

The purpose of the conference will be to look back at the evolution of anticorruption law as it affects cross-border business, trade, and regulation, but without taking the standpoint of a particular jurisdiction. This retrospective review will seek to explore the mechanisms that have led to the development of modern “transnational” anticorruption law and standards. The conference will also discuss current challenges and possible ways forward. It will undertake to achieve these goals through an interdisciplinary approach considering public international law and private international law methods, as well as comparative law, among other fields, while looking at the role and influence of a variety of actors. The conference will also explore the contribution of other disciplines such as economics, political science, psychology, and anthropology to understand their impact on the development of anticorruption standards and their implementation in the transnational context.

With this in mind, the conference will consider whether and how anticorruption laws and standards should synergistically lean towards transnational harmonization, unification, or remain a multitude of overlapping and possibly at times conflicting regulatory and procedural regimes. Discussing possible adjustments in transnational anticorruption norms would imply looking at the following issues, among others:

• What prompted the process of transnationalization in the area of anticorruption?
• What does transnationalization mean in the anticorruption context?
• Is there a normative hierarchy in anticorruption standards?
• How are anticorruption law, concepts, and practices transplanted?
• What is the role of international organizations, regulators, national courts, NGOs, civil society, private actors, and international tribunals in defining anticorruption norms and standards?
• How should anticorruption regulators cooperate?
• What is the effectiveness and legitimacy of transnational anticorruption law?
• Can transnational anticorruption law find a coercive authority?
• Should there be a world anticorruption court?
• Has the transnationalization of anticorruption law gone too far?
• What can be learnt from other disciplines when it comes to devising or implementing anticorruption laws and policies?

Additional details on how to contribute to the conference are available here. We hope many GAB contributors and readers will participate.