September 17 was the 150th anniversary of the single bloodiest day in American history. On that day the Army of Northern Virginia, led by Robert E. Lee met the Army of the Potomac, led by George McClellan. The battle was fought near a railway junction called Sharpsburg on Antietam Creek. On this day more than 23,000 Americans from both the North and South were casualties. As a Texan, I must note that John Hood’s Texas Division had casualties reported at over 90%, the highest ever for any US Division in any war at any time. When asked by a fellow officer where his division was, Hood replied, “Dead on the field.”

While the battle was a tactical draw, it ended the first Southern threat of invasion of the North. More importantly it provided Lincoln the political cover to issue the Emancipation Document, which changed the nature and course of the Civil War. I thought about how the horrific battle of Antietam led to something very different, the Emancipation Proclamation, when I read the latest output by the FCPA Professor, in an article entitled “Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Enforcement As Seen Through Wal-Mart’s Potential Exposure”. The Professor used the lens of the allegations of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) violations brought forward against Wal-Mart, as set out in the New York Times (NYT) article of April 21, 2012. The Professor explored five questions:

whether Congress intended in passing the FCPA to capture the type of payments at issue in Wal-Mart;

what FCPA case law instructs as to the payments;

whether what Congress intended or what courts have concluded even matters; and

the politicization of Wal-Mart’s scrutiny and its impact on FCPA reform.