Issues in Anti-Corruption Law : Can an Activist Regulatory Stance Overcome Legislative Problems in Preventive Anti-Corruption Agencies Like Montenegro’s?

Article 6 of the UN Convention Against Corruption requires that signatory states establish an anti-corruption agency (or agencies) responsible for preventing corruption. However, the Convention - and legal scholarship in general - provides little direction about how such agencies should be organised. Moreover, the piece-meal nature of anti-corruption legislation in most developing countries makes the efficient operation of such agencies difficult to impossible. This article argues that regulatory instruments can help overcome the inherent weaknesses of legislation governing many anti-corruption agencies. Using the Montenegro’s Directorate for Anti-Corruption Initiatives (DACI), I show how the design of a regulation - relying on already existing legislative and other legal provisions - can help improve the preventive anti-corruption agency’s ability to tackle corruption. I provide an analysis of the specific provisions of such an activist regulation and point out potential pitfalls in the use of such regulations as a way of circumventing the legislature’s weakness in fighting corruption