When: Wednesday, April 14, 12:00-1:15 pm EDT; 6:00-7:15pm CEST

According to the IMF the annual cost of bribery is approximately US$1.5-2.0 trillion dollars, equivalent to about 2 percent of global GDP. The deleterious economic effects of corruption are well-known. It undermines economic growth and thus government revenue, limiting the ability of the state to invest in crucial public infrastructure and services. Corruption encourages the informal economy, which further undermines tax bases. Studies have shown that it contributes to worsening income distribution, exacerbating inequality, and creates ownership uncertainty, as there are no enforceable property rights emanating from a transaction involving bribery. The strong linkages between corruption, systemic human rights abuses and international security threats have also been recently highlighted by scholars. Broadly speaking, because corruption is a betrayal of public trust, it diminishes the legitimacy of the state and the moral stature of the government bureaucracy in the eyes of the population. Against this sobering background this panel will explore how and why the establishment of an International Anti-Corruption Court could be a vital institutional enhancement to the current global governance architecture.

Welcoming Remarks

Maja Groff, Visiting Scholar, Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs, Leiden University, and Global Governance Forum.

Panelists

• Moderator: Augusto Lopez-Claros: Chair, Global Governance Forum
• Judge Mark Wolf, Senior United States District Judge, Chair of Integrity Initiatives International, USA
• Judge Richard Goldstone, former Justice of the South African Constitutional Court, former chief prosecutor of the United Nations’ International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda
• Judge Claudia Escobar, former Magistrate, Court of Appeals, Guatemala, Commissioner International Experts Commission against Corruption in Ecuador—United Nations Office of Drug and Crime
• Daniel Kaufmann, former Director of the World Bank Institute, Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution, president emeritus, Natural Resource Governance Institute
• Maja Groff, Visiting Scholar, Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs (LUC), Leiden University

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