LAWFARE AND THE “ANTICORRUPTION CRUSADE”

INSTRUMENTALIZATION OF THE FOREIGN CORRUPT PRACTICES ACT (FCPA) AND THE PERSECUTION IN THE PETROBRAS CASE

Abstract

This paper sought to investigate how lawfare, which can be literally translated as "legal warfare," has been a fundamental instrument of hybrid warfare, whose strategy is conceived within the framework of new military and political strategies in a neoliberal context. Thus, the research question is whether law has been used as a weapon in the global geopolitical landscape through the anti-corruption discourse that has developed in recent years. To this end, we analyzed the extraterritorial consequences of the United States' fight against corruption through the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), and briefly examined the importance of US influence in the context of “Operação Lava Jato”. The methodology for this work was the deductive method, using bibliography focused on the proposed topic in national and international legal doctrine, as well as documents and reports for a theoretical-conceptual review with the collection of primary and secondary data. Thus, the adopted proposal raised a series of essential questions that will enable a better understanding. the use of law as a “weapon of war”, which occurs through the political instrumentalization of the anti-corruption banner at the domestic and international level.