Foreign Investments, the Rule of Corrupted Law and Transnational Systemic Corruption in Uganda’s Mineral Sector

The relationship between corruption, particularly when systemic, and the rule of law is a circular one. On the one hand, corruption undermines the rule of law; on the other hand, a weak rule of law facilitates corruption. In a sort of parasitic relationship, corruption quickly attaches to the flaws and the loopholes of the legal-institutional system and from them it grows, infecting other branches of the law and the institutions. Inadequate regulation and ineffective enforcement, therefore, play a formidable causal role in the systemization of corruption, either intendedly or unintendedly. This chapter explores the corrupting effects of the law, broadly considered as both norms and institutions, and their impact on the rule of law in the context of foreign investments in the Uganda mining sector. Our study adopts an interdisciplinary approach seeking to integrate different theoretical explanations of corruption. We particularly rely on existing criminological theories on the unintended criminogenic effects of legislation. The analysis of the Uganda case study should provide further evidence to support such theories and expand their applicability beyond mere legislation, to any source of law, and beyond the context of European and developed countries. The chapter also seeks to complement and corroborate the research findings on the corrupting effects of the law with traditional criminological theories of crime, sociological and socio-psychological theories of anomie and strain psychological theories of legitimacy.