What is essential is that we respond to the existing climate by making more efforts than in the past to be, and to be seen to be, men and women of integrity.

-- Donald H. Oliver


  


Legislative Ethics & Codes of Conduct Unit 7: Sanctioning
 
Unit 7 Learning Objectives

After studying this unit you should be able to:

  • List some of the sanctions that may be adopted to punish violations of the code’s dispositions;
    • Identify what institutions have the power to sanction MPs under ethics violations. 
Introduction

What would happen if a legislator violated a code of conduct? Would it simply tarnish his reputation? Or do codes of conduct violations happen so frequently that no one would take notice? Would he be arrested? Fired? Wear a Scarlet Letter? When there is an official consequence to behaviors of misconduct that is called a sanction.

This unit discusses how violations of the arrangement of the codes of conduct are penalized or sanctioned by the codes themselves.  You will learn about what types of sanctions that may be imposed to punish violations of the codes, and the variation in the severity of sanctions. You’ll also learn about the great inconsistency in the institutions that sanction violations of the codes’. According to the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), the job of punishing MPs’ misconduct is usually reserved for Independent Commissions, Parliamentary Committees, Parliaments, Speakers of the Parliament, and Courts in different countries of the world.

 

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