Abstract

VALAREZO, Andrés Cervantes. The “clean hands” doctrine in investment Arbitration and its applicability to the Ecuadorian legal system. Iuris Dictio [online]. 2018, n.22, pp.71-87. ISSN 2528-7834.  https://doi.org/10.18272/iu.v22i22.1133.

The Clean Hands doctrine is currently applied in international investment arbitration and has the effect of arbitration panels rejecting jurisdiction over the dispute or declaring the claims proposed by the investor inadmissible. This doctrine could be applied when: a) the investment is illegal under the law of the host State; and, b) when arbitrators find acts of corruption between the investor and State officials such as embezzlement, bribes or influence peddling. The article analyses, under a case law basis, how the doctrine has been applied in different international investment arbitration procedures concluding that there is no consensus on the nature of the doctrine -whether or not it constitutes a customary law principle- under international law nor about the required test standard. Secondly, the article argues that the Clean Hands doctrine can be applied under Ecuadorian law in disputes on public contracts.

Keywords : Clean hands doctrine; Investment arbitration; Illegal investments; Corruption.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )