Impact of Corruption on the Scope of Arbitration Agreements in International Commercial Arbitration

Corruption plagues international trade, often manifesting in contracts tainted by corruption in international commercial arbitration. These contracts include those obtained by corruption and those that provide for corruption. Contracts providing for corruption are mostly in the form of intermediary contracts. Contracts obtained by corruption generally include investment contracts concluded between investors and host states for the performance of public services.The parties may refer disputes arising from their contracts tainted by corruption to international commercial arbitration. In this case, the following question arises: Are disputes tainted by corruption included within the scope of the arbitration agreement?Disputes arising from corrupt intermediary contracts are not within the scope of the arbitration agreement, as the parties never intended to arbitrate disputes arising from their corrupt acts before arbitral tribunals. By contrast, disputes involving corruption do fall within the scope of the arbitration agreement when the underlying contract was obtained by corruption.