Principles of the Law, Government Ethics

Focused on the legislative and executive branches of government, topics include gifts from and financial relationships with prohibited sources; conflicts of interest and outside activities of public servants; election-related activities of public servants; restrictions on entering and leaving public service; reporting and disclosure; and administration and enforcement mechanisms.

Ethical standards to govern the behavior of government officials have long been a matter of great public interest. The development of the standards and procedures needed to ensure that public officials act in the public interest and use public resources for public, not private purposes, has been the focus of criminal codes, ethics laws, executive orders, and legislative rules at all levels of government. This work distills a basic set of principles that articulates the values to shape the field and, when possible, presents operational rules that will achieve those goals. 

The Principles will be valuable to the many governments, particularly at the state and local level, that may be developing ethical standards for the first time or revising, refining, and strengthening rules previously adopted.

The Principles do not address judicial ethics because of the distinct concerns and institutional structure of the judiciary.

Reporter:
Richard Briffault, Columbia University School of Law, New York, NY
Associate Reporters:
Richard W. Painter, University of Minnesota Law School, Minneapolis, MN [from 2014]
Kathleen Clark, Washington University School of Law, Saint Louis, MO [to 2014]

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