Ridwan Arifin, Sonia Yamileth Castro Yama, Mashaallah Othman Mohamed Al-Zwae, Muhammad Ikram Nur Fuady, Valerio Sebastian
This article examines why illicit enrichment remains normatively pivotal yet legally and practically elusive within the contemporary anti-corruption regime. Despite the conceptual simplicity of penalizing unexplained wealth, this offense consistently encounters formidable constitutional objections, legality principles, and rigorous evidentiary thresholds. This study interrogates why illicit enrichment remains doctrinally recalcitrant despite being vigorously promoted by the UNCAC and global financial integrity agendas. It argues that the primary impediment lies not merely within formal legal doctrines, but rather within penal culture, how a constitutional system conceptualizes the moral legitimacy of inferring criminality from wealth and tolerates the shifting of evidentiary burdens. Utilizing a comparative doctrinal, historical, and institutional analysis of Indonesia, Spain, Colombia, and the United Kingdom, this research demonstrates that formal codification does not ensure enforcement efficacy. Illicit enrichment operates effectively only where the penal culture accommodates epistemic asymmetry (Colombia). Conversely, it is constrained by legal formalism (Spain), rejected by legality absolutism requiring a criminal predicate (UK), or perpetually suspended between systemic necessity and legality anxiety (Indonesia). This divergence proves that procedural safeguards and doctrinal caution frequently constrain international norms. Globally, this study contributes a novel theoretical model of penal culture that deconstructs the universalism of international anti-corruption norms, demonstrating that the success of legal transplantation depends entirely upon its compatibility with domestic penal cultures. © 2026, Maulana Malik Ibrahim State Islamic University of Malang. All rights reserved.
Universitas Negeri Semarang, Indonesia; Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain; Benghazi University, Benghazi, Libya; University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom; Sociedad Civil de Derecho y Políticas Públicas, SOCIPOL, Spain
