Corruption in Investor-State Arbitration - It Takes Two to Tango

In this article, the authors will provide a broad overview of the issue of corruption in investor-state arbitration, including such issues as burden and standard of proof (arguing, e.g., that it should be different for corruption and fraud). The main sections of the article will cover a special aspect of corruption in investor-state arbitration, which might have become widespread, but remains rarely discussed in academic literature, let alone treated by arbitral tribunals – namely that it takes «two to tango» in instances of corruption. The authors argue that instead of the approach adopted by many Tribunals of shifting the consequences of an act of corruption to one party only (i.e. the investor being then deprived of its protection under the BIT), in reality neither the investor, nor the Respondent State can be exonerated, but have to share the blame for an act of corruption, and therefore face investment arbitration-specific consequences. Finally, the authors look at specific ways in which States may be (and have been) penalized for such conduct in the limited number of investment arbitration cases reported to date