Introduction

Hong Kong was one of the earliest common law jurisdictions to enact comprehensive modern bribery laws. For this reason alone, it was surprising that the Law Commission's reports on bribery did not refer to the Hong Kong experience. The omission is likely explained by aspects of Hong Kong's bribery laws, which the Law Commission refrained from adopting, such as the agent–principal paradigm and separation of public and private bribery. This chapter will not try to defend a superior Hong Kong approach to substantive law. Instead, it will focus on enforcing bribery laws, a topic which was not given special attention in the Bribery Act 2010. Hong Kong has close to forty years of experience in enforcing anti-corruption laws, including two decades of enforcement in a human rights environment with an entrenched bill of rights, robust independent judiciary and increasingly open society.

Established in 1974, Hong Kong's Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) is regarded as one of the world's most successful anti-corruption agencies. It cured the serious ills of public corruption that had plagued Hong Kong society for decades up to the early 1980s. It is seen as a leader in interdicting corruption in the private sector. Its greatest impact has probably come from its far-reaching educational and prevention work, giving it a ubiquitous presence in the community from kindergarten classrooms to prime-time television to corporate boardrooms. As part of the 1997 resumption of sovereignty, it was given a special protected status in Hong Kong's constitution, the Basic Law.