ABSTRACT
To keep this book to the indecently short length it now is, other conventions – which regionalise or tinker with the above – have not been included.
58 B r i b e r y a n d C o r r u p t i o n
The UK has signed (or will sign) all four conventions and has ratified the first two. Followers of committees and conventions will already know that signature means that the terms are generally agreed and ratification that domestic laws comply or will be put in place. The third stage is that the convention is taken onto a country’s statute books. If a country which ratifies a convention fails to observe its obligations, it may come under pressure from other members and in the case of the European Union (EU), political, legal and financial sanctions. In most cases this is akin to being mauled by a dead sheep.
