Trading in Influence: Requirements of the Council of Europe Convention and the Hungarian Criminal Law

Hollán, Miklós (2011) Trading in Influence: Requirements of the Council of Europe Convention and the Hungarian Criminal Law. Acta Juridica Hungarica, 52 (3). pp. 235-246. ISSN 1216-2574

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Abstract

Active trading in influence, namely promising, giving an undue advantage to someone, who asserts or confirms that he or she is able to exert an improper influence over third persons, is not explicitly regulated by the HCC. Exceptionally this conduct may be qualified as active bribery of domestic or foreign (international) public officials, but only if the active influence trader intends that the passive influence trader (on the basis of their arrangement) will transmit the undue advantage to the public official. Other cases of active trading in influence are not punishable under Hungarian Law, e.g. when the entire advantage is given to an influence trader, who asserts only his or her influence (without pretending the commission of active bribery). In this regard the Hungarian legislation is not in conformity with the requirements of the COE Convention, which oblige member states to active trading in influence irrespective of the allegation of bribery. Hungarian criminal law shall be harmonized with the requirements of the COE Convention by penalizing active trading in influence.

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