Comparative Narratives of Transnational Corporate Bribery: Corporate Offenders in Focus

• In Event: EUROC 7 - Corruption and the Private Sector

Abstract

Enforcement against transnational corporate bribery is increasingly carried out through abbreviated, out-of-court criminal procedures known as non-trial resolutions (NTRs). By approaching NTRs as storytelling sites, this article employs a narrative analysis to understand how corporate offenders are depicted within two distinct NTR frameworks: Summary Punishment Orders (SPOs) in Switzerland and Deferred Prosecution Agreements (DPAs) in England and Wales. The study reveals divergent portrayals of the corporate offender that hinge on the legal emplotment of conviction in SPOs as opposed to that of deferred prosecution in DPAs. SPOs tend to present the corporation more distinctly as a defendant, whereas DPAs often cast corporations in the role of collaborative partners in law enforcement. Despite these contrasting narratives, an examination of the corporate offender's trajectory throughout the NTR story reveals a common endpoint: both SPOs and DPAs serve as transformative stages, recasting the corporate offender from a negligent entity to a reformed corporate citizen.

Author

• Melody Bozinova, Neuchâtel University