Lilit Nagapetyan

Profile

Thesis title

Corruption in International Arbitration

Supervisors

• Professor Stavros Brekoulakis
• Professor Julian Lew QC

Summary of research

The review of the existing arbitral practice on corruption demonstrates that there is a great disparity in the approaches to various procedural issues in cases where corruption allegations are involved. Such discrepancies often have an outcome-determinative role. Despite the challenges faced by arbitrators, there is currently a notable lack of guidance which in practice acts as a deterrence for arbitrators in adopting a proactive approach.

The research focuses on various issues which arise when issues of corruption need to be adjudicated in an arbitral proceeding because of their impact on underlying contract. It seeks to examine the emergence of transnational responses to various procedural issues related to corruption in international arbitration. In particular, the research analyses the solutions offered and challenges presented by the transnational public policy in relation to the harmonisation of approaches to the legal issues including the applicable law, the standard and burden of proof, the use of circumstantial evidence and ‘red flags’ methodology, arbitrators’ duties, and legal consequences of corruption.

Biography

Lilit Nagapetyan is a PhD Candidate at Queen Mary University of London where she completed a postgraduate degree in International Dispute Resolution (Arbitration). She also holds the degrees of Specialist in Law (Lomonosov Moscow State University), Master of Law (University of Cambridge), and studied at the University of Geneva under a full Exchange Scholarship. She is a Teaching Fellow and an Assistant Editor for the QM Law Journal.

Research