Ethical Standards for the Civil Service in Europe: Substitutes for or Complements of Legal Rules?

Abstract

Codes of conduct, ethical charters, and structures such as anti-corruption agencies have developed over the last decades in an overwhelming majority of States. The aim of this analysis is to highlight the phenomenon of the diffusion of ethical standards, both in their manifestation and in their impact on legal systems (with a focus on the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Germany, and France). Substantively, there is a great deal of convergence: these ethical norms exist, develop, and complement pre-existing legal rules. However, the normative approach brings out the specificities of each legal system, which do not totally disappear. Indeed, ethical standards intervene in the hierarchy of norms in a variety of ways. All this demonstrates the capacity of States to integrate new ideas and norms, and to respond to a certain acculturation or transculturation, without totally renouncing that which makes up their profound identity.