As long as laws have been enacted, inquisitive minds have contemplated the salient question of whether the law has been successful in achieving its objectives. Upon the 40th anniversary of the FCPA, it is appropriate to ask the salient question of whether the FCPA has been successful.
Of course to answer this question, success in the FCPA context must first be defined. Admittedly this is no easy task, as there are various plausible meanings of success in the FCPA context.
This approximate 25 minute video discuss these various meanings of success and encourages you to answer for yourself the question of whether the FCPA has been successful in achieving its objectives.
The various meanings of success highlighted range from “hard” enforcement metrics (such as the number of actual FCPA enforcement actions as well as outcomes in actual FCPA actions when government enforcement agencies are put to their burden of proof) to “soft” enforcement metrics (such as deterrence and voluntary compliance with the FCPA provisions) to “modeling” dynamics (namely whether the pioneering FCPA law motivated other countries to enact similar laws).
