In 1977, the U.S. enacted the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”), the first law of its kind in the world governing the conduct of domestic actors in their interactions with foreign officials in foreign markets. Four decades later, this Article addresses the salient question of whether the FCPA has been successful in achieving its objectives. In addressing this difficult question, various plausible meanings of FCPA success are offered and analyzed through various FCPA enforcement statistics, FCPA enforcement agency statements, qualitative FCPA data points, and other FCPA relevant information. While answering the question posed by this Article may be inconclusive, the main goal of this Article is to foster a dialogue on the best meaning of FCPA success and force those in the FCPA space to pause, reflect, and come to their own conclusions whether the FCPA, in its four decades, has been successful in achieving its objectives.
The full text of this Symposium is available to download as a PDF.