The ambient of corruption: Rule of Law Standards and Anti-Corruption Campaigns

This paper looks at three leading cases of judicially led anti-corruption campaigns: the Mani Pulite case in Italy, the Lava jato campaign in Brazil and the anti-corruption campaign led by the special prosecutor's office in Romania assessing them from the standpoint of the protection of rule of law principles within the criminal process. The paper finds that many violations of this principle may be explained by the drive of the prosecutors to gather evidence of the criminal acts. In that sense, the paper explores the evidentiary problems that occurred in all three of the campaigns using plea bargaining in the case of Lava Jato, distinction between the specific criminal acts in the Mani pulite and the usage of evidence gathered by the intelligence agency in case of Romania. The paper concludes that the integrity of the criminal process was less endangered in Italy and Romania then in Brazil and that, consequentially, the legitimacy of the campaigns was better preserved by the judicial structures in Italy and Romania.