BRIBERY. The offence of bribery may be defined as the offering, giving or accepting of consideration in some shape or form that it may be a motive in the performance of functions for which the proper motive ought to be a conscientious sense of duty. The offence may be divided into two great classes—the one where a person invested with power is induced by payment to use it unjustly; the other, where power is obtained by purchasing the suffrages of those who can impart it.
In England judicial corruption has been a crime of remarkable rarity. Indeed, with the exception of a statute of 1384 (repealed by the Statute Law Revision Act, 1881), there has been no legisla tion relating to judicial bribery. The first judicial scandal was that of 1289 when several of the judges were tried and convicted of corruption and other offences. The second was that of 135o when Sir William Thorpe was fined and removed from office for accepting bribes. Other celebrated cases were those of Michael de la Pole, chancellor of England, in 1387; Lord Chan cellor Bacon in 1621; Lionel Cranfield, earl of Middlesex, in 1624; and Sir Thomas Parker, first earl of Macclesfield, in 1725. In Scotland for some years after the Revolution the bench was not without a suspicion of interested partiality; but since the be ginning of the 19th century, at least, there has been in all parts of the empire a perfect reliance on its purity. The same may be said of the higher class of ministerial officers. There is no doubt that in the period from the Revolution to the end of Queen Anne's reign, when a speaker of the House of Commons was expelled for bribery, and the great Marlborough could not clear his character from pecuniary dishonesty, there was much corrup tion in the highest official quarters. The level of the offence of official bribery has gradually descended, until it has become an extremely rare thing for even the humbler officers to be charged with it.
(see EMBRACERY) is punishable as a misdemeanour at common law, as is the giving or taking of a bribe by any judicial or ministerial officer. The buying and selling of public offices is also at common law and by statute the offence of bribery. By the Customs Con solidation Act, 1876, any officer in the customs service is liable to instant dismissal and a penalty of £500 for taking a bribe, and any person offering or promising a bribe or reward to an officer to neglect his duty or conceal or connive at any act by which the customs may be evaded shall forfeit the sum of £200. Under the Inland Revenue Regulations Act, 189o, the bribery of commis sioners, collectors, officers or other persons employed in relation to the Inland Revenue involves a fine of £500. The Merchant Shipping Act, 1894, ss. 112 and 398, makes provision for certain offences in the nature of bribery. Bribery is, by the Extradition Act, 1906, an extraditable offence. Administrative corruption was dealt with in the Public Bodies' Corrupt Practices Act, 1889. The public bodies concerned are county councils, town or borough councils' boards, commissioners, select vestries and other bodies having local government, public health or poor law powers, and having for those purposes to administer rates raised under public general acts. The giving or receiving, promising, offering, solicit ing or agreeing to receive any gift, fee, loan or advantage by any person as an inducement for any act or forbearance by a member, officer or servant of a public body in regard to the affairs of that body is made a misdemeanour in England and a crime and offence in Scotland. Prosecution under the act requires the consent of the attorney- or solicitor-general in England and of the lord advo cate in Scotland. Conviction renders liable to imprisonment with or without hard labour for a term not exceeding two years, and to a fine not exceeding £500, in addition to or in lieu of imprison ment. The offender may also be ordered to pay to the public body concerned any bribe received by him; he may be adjudged incapable for seven years of holding public office, i.e., the position of member, officer or servant of a public body; and if already an officer or servant, besides forfeiting his place, he is liable at the discretion of the court to forfeit his right to compensation or pension. On a second conviction he may be adjudged for ever incapable of holding public office, and for seven years incapable of being registered or of voting as a parliamentary elector, or as an elector of members of a public body. An offence under the act may be prosecuted and punished under any other act appli cable thereto, or at common law; but no person is to be punished twice for the same offence. In certain cases penal servitude can be inflicted (see Prevention of Corruption Act, 1916, infra) . Bribery at political elections was at common law punishable by indictment or information, but numerous statutes have been passed dealing with it as a "corrupt practice." In this sense the word is elastic in meaning and may embrace any method of cor ruptly influencing another for the purpose of securing his vote (see CORRUPT PRACTICES). Bribery at elections of fellows, scholars, officers and other persons in colleges, cathedral and col legiate churches, hospitals and other societies was prohibited in 1588-89 by statute (31 Eliz. c. 6). Bribery and corruption of and by agents and others is dealt with by the Prevention of Corrup tion Acts, 1906 and 1916. By the act of 1906 the giving or accept ing of a bribe is made a misdemeanour punishable on indict ment by imprisonment not exceeding two years and—or—a fine not exceeding £500, on summary conviction the maximum pen alties being four months and f 5o respectively. A person serv ing under the Crown, or under a corporation or municipal or local council or board of guardians is an agent within the act, and the consent of a law officer is necessary for a prosecution. By the act of 1916 a person convicted on indictment under the Public Bodies' Corrupt Practices Act, 1889, or under the act of 1906, where the transaction had relation to a contract with the crown or public body, is liable to penal servitude not exceeding seven years, and in like circumstances the gift or receipt of money or other consideration is deemed to have been corrupt unless the contrary is proved. Local and public authorities of all descriptions are included in the expression "public body." By the Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act, 1925, it was made a misdemeanour, punishable on indictment or summarily, to give or accept or agree or attempt to give or accept any gift as an inducement for pro curing or assisting to procure the grant of a dignity or title of honour. And on conviction the gift is forfeited to the Crown.
(W. DE B. H.) United States.—Bribery or corruption in American law is the offering to or receiving by any person charged with a public duty any money, favour or other thing of value to perform or refrain from performing such public duty. It is a crime, originally a mis demeanour, now a felony in practically all jurisdictions.
In order to consummate the crime it is not necessary that the person to whom the bribe is tendered should actually accept it or that his official action should actually be influenced by it. It is not even necessary that the money be tendered or produced. It is enough if it is offered. But a gift, not intended to influence official action, is not a bribe. It is no defence that the official ac cepting the bribe or the person offering the bribe was entrapped by the other party in an endeavour to get evidence and that such other party had no intent to influence official action. It is no de fence that the bribe offered was worthless or that action or con duct desired by the briber was in itself proper. An officer is guilty who accepts a bribe to do his duty.
The official action sought to be influenced may be that of a judicial officer, or of other regularly appointed or elected officials, or it may be of juror, referee or appraiser, whose official duties and sphere of action are confined to a specific case. (The latter is called embracery, q.v.) Or the official action sought to be in fluenced may be the exercise of the elective franchise (see COR RUPT PRACTICES). Offences against the elective franchise are now generally covered in separate statutes and generally contain among their penalties on the one side the loss of the office voted for and on the other the loss of the right to vote for some fixed period.
The bribery statutes have in many instances been extended to cover attempts to influence the action of labour representatives, as to cause or prevent the calling of a strike, although such labour representative is not in strictness a public official or performing a public duty. (B. RE.)
