The Doctrine of 'Clean Hands' and the Inadmissibility of Claims by Investors Breaching International Human Rights Law

Abstract

This first part of this short paper briefly examines how arbitral tribunals in the context of investor-state arbitration have already made use of the clean hands doctrine to determine questions of admissibility/jurisdiction involving illegal conduct by an investor. The second part focuses on how tribunals should in the future make use of the “clean hands” doctrine to find inadmissible claims involving human rights violation.

Keywords: human rights, clean hands doctrine, investor-state arbitration, admissibility, jurisdiction, ICSID