One of the things there is a dearth of in the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act world is corporations going to trial. This has led to a veritable lack of judicial interpretation of the law in its 39-year history. While there are a couple of significant courts of appeal that have weighed in on interpretations of the law, there are only a small number of such decisions which lawyers and compliance practitioners can point to as established legal precedent when discussing the law with clients. This lack of case law interpretation has led to an FCPA common law created by Justice Department interpretation as expressed in FCPA enforcement actions and the FCPA guidance. While there are many reasons for this lack of a body of trials, the fact is that almost all corporations settle rather than take the government to court.
