Anti-Corruption

After two decades of the 1997 the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions (hereinafter OECD Convention), ratified by 44 State Parties, no study has yet fully explored how the monitoring mechanism overseeing the implementation of the convention has pushed its members to take concrete action to fight foreign bribery and corruption. This project aims to be the first empirical study at the intersection of legal research and data science, across all the country reports and press releases issued by the OECD Working Group on Bribery (WGB).

As a naming and shaming mechanism, its reach is limited. However, the OECD Working Group on Bribery has leveled up its tone by approaching its members harshly. This first study evidences this harsh tone by using sentiment analysis on 241 country reports and 111 press releases published up to 2018 by the WGB. Further, this project also suggests possible reasons for attributing this phenomenon.

While this peer review mechanism is not a single answer to a world without corruption, it is undoubtedly an essential part of that solution. This research aims to continue nourishing the evolving empirical research on the international anti-corruption regime, by informing all stakeholders whether the methodologies devised by international organizations and States have worked in practice, and how, navigating through the tone and approach to push States to meet their international commitments. While doing so, this research also aims to contribute to the legal scholarship on peer reviews and monitoring mechanisms and to a greater extent to the literature on compliance by States with international law.