Redundancy as a Legal Strategy to Fight Corruption

Abstract

Engineering uses duplication to create fail safe systems. The existence of two system components performing the same function increases reliability, as the supposedly superfluous component can be turned on if the main one breaks down. While redundancy ensures that many of our modern conveniences such as computers and planes do not crash, this solution has not been extensively explored in a legal context. This paper will articulate some of the advantages of redundancy between different areas of the law (administrative, civil and criminal) as well at the institutional level (between bodies performing monitoring, investigative and adjudicative functions). Legal efforts to combat corruption around the world provide illustrative examples of the many advantages of this strategy, but also some of its costs. Far from providing a comprehensive empirical analysis of this subject, this paper creates hypotheses to be tested and proposes that the topic deserves more attention among legal scholars.