Corruption in International Commercial Arbitration

44 Pages Posted: 21 Feb 2016

See all articles by Angeliki Rousaki

Angeliki Rousaki

Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Law, Economic and Political Sciences, Students

Date Written: January 1, 2015

Abstract

Allegations of corruption create challenges in the context of an international arbitration which arbitrators are called to encounter. First of all in the absence of any binding rules with respect to evidentiary matters, tribunals need to find a balance between the competing tensions of the preservation of parties’ rights and the fight against corruption when evaluating evidence of corruption. Secondly, we examine the legal issues encountered by a tribunal in determining the applicable law to the merits of a dispute; namely we are called to answer to the question as to whether foreign mandatory laws or rules of public policy at the place of performance or seat of arbitration contrary to the parties’ chosen law, override the chosen law and according to which conflict of law rules this issue is going to be determined. Thirdly, assuming that corruption has been established we draw the legal consequences of such a finding with respect to the tribunal’s jurisdiction and the admissibility of the claim. Finally we examine the aspects of judicial scrutiny of allegedly corruption-tainted awards. First, we will attempt to answer to the question on to what extent national courts ought to defer to tribunals’ negative findings of corruption. Should the court take a tribunal’s findings at face value, or should it investigate further and come to its own conclusions on the existence of corruption, and if so, to what extent? The second aspect of judicial scrutiny of awards requires a court to determine whether, if the party/parties are guilty of corruption or other forms of impropriety (on the basis of the tribunal’s or the court’s findings, as the case may be), such conduct is egregious enough to warrant setting aside or refusal of enforcement of the award on public policy grounds.

Keywords: International, Arbitration, Corruption, Bribery, Allegations

Suggested Citation

Rousaki, Angeliki, Corruption in International Commercial Arbitration (January 1, 2015). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2531044 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2531044

Angeliki Rousaki (Contact Author)

Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Law, Economic and Political Sciences, Students ( email )

Thessaloniki
Greece

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