CONFLICTS OF INTEREST IN PARLIAMENT

The goal of this study is to focus on the legal mechanisms covering conflicts of interest in parliament via either self-restraint or outsourced mechanisms. Its approach centres on the ineffectiveness of current responses to conflicts of interest (declarations of financial interests, system governing incompatibilities and the regulation of lobbies). For this reason, it is based upon the transfer to parliament of the legal solutions of comparative law (parliamentary codes of conduct, the duty of loyalty, etc.), private law (duty of abstention, annulment of an act, accountability, etc) and the analogous application of the principles of good governance applicable to senior officials. Additionally, the penal implications of conflicts of interest as an underlying aspect of crimes of corruption provide additional support for the classification in law of such conflicts in parliament. The anomalies and shortcomings of the legislature constitute a parliamentary deficiency that calls for an effective legal response.