Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA)

15 U.S.C. §§ 78dd-1, et seq.

 

Corporations that abuse human rights and the environment across borders also often engage in corrupt business practices in violation of law. In some cases, corruption may be directly connected to the human rights abuses. While there is a dwindling set of legal tools for corporate accountability on human rights alone, international and domestic anticorruption frameworks are robust, and some laws and regulations, like the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) (15 U.S.C. §§ 78dd-1, et seq.), apply specifically to corruption committed overseas. The FCPA prohibits payments and promises of payments to foreign officials for business purposes. The federal statute applies to all U.S. companies and certain foreign issuers of securities. This strategy considers how the FCPA can be leveraged to hold corporations that violate human rights accountable for abuses connected to corruption.