Professor Celia Wells, Head of the Law School, has been invited to speak on corporate liability for bribery at a Regional Seminar in Kuala Lumpur organised by the Asian Development Bank/OECD Anti-Corruption Initiative for Asia and Pacific on 23-24 September 2010.  The purpose of the seminar is to provide participants with a general understanding of the key issues for the effective criminalisation of bribery. The seminar will cover not only statutory bribery offences, but also effective means for the investigation and enforcement of these offences. It will also help identify cross-cutting issues for further work, and to facilitate effective technical assistance on implementation of the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC). Speakers will present both international standards and national approaches to these issues. The seminar will also include a case study using elements drawn from actual bribery cases.  The seminar is open to official representatives of Member Countries and Jurisdictions of the ADB/OECD Anti-Corruption Initiative for Asia and the Pacific.

Professor Wells presented a paper on common law approaches to corporate liability to the OECD Working Group in Paris in 2002. She was also an expert witness during the prelegislative scrutiny of the UK Bribery Bill 2009 which led to a much tightened provision for corporate liability in the Bribery Act 2010.