ABSTRACT

Incorporating anti-corruption provisions into international investment agreements is a vital step for governments to address transnational corruption in international investment. This empirical study analyses a category of anti-corruption provisions that fosters compliance by investors. These anti-corruption provisions address anti-corruption issues either within corporate social responsibility clauses or through ‘carve-out’ statements. The former encourages investors to voluntarily comply with corporate social responsibility, including anti-corruption commitments, while the latter imposes direct obligations on investors by denying substantive treaty protection or access to arbitration if their investments were obtained through corruption. However, these provisions are unsatisfactory in terms of achieving their intended objectives: promoting sustainable development and achieving a symmetrical balance between investors and states. This paper addresses two central weaknesses of anti-corruption provisions. First, corporate social responsibility-based anti-corruption provisions are soft law norms that result in limited obligations or effects. Second, ‘carve-out’ anti-corruption provisions actually favour states’ interests, because they solely evaluate investors’ conduct without considering a state’s corrupt act. This paper recommends that, in addition to promoting responsible and corruption-free investments on the investor side, states should commit to take necessary measures to promote the integrity of public officials, establish cooperation and improve anti-corruption standards, and preserve sufficient remedial measures for investors in cases of solicitation by state officials.

中文翻译：

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国际投资协议中的反腐败规定：投资者义务，可持续性考虑和对称平衡

摘要

将反腐败条款纳入国际投资协议，对于政府应对国际投资中的跨国腐败至关重要。这项实证研究分析了反腐败规定的类别，该规定促进了投资者的遵守。这些反腐败规定在公司社会责任条款内或通过“剥离”声明解决了反腐败问题。前者鼓励投资者自愿履行公司的社会责任，包括反腐败承诺，而后者则通过拒绝实质性条约保护或如果其投资是通过腐败获得仲裁而对投资者施加直接义务。但是，这些条款在实现其预期目标方面并不令人满意：促进可持续发展并实现投资者与国家之间的对称平衡。本文解决了反腐败规定的两个主要弱点。首先，基于公司社会责任的反腐败规定是软法律规范，会导致有限的义务或效果。其次，“剥离”反腐败规定实际上有利于国家利益，因为它们仅评估投资者的行为而未考虑国家的腐败行为。本文建议，除了在投资者方面促进负责任和无腐败的投资外，各州还应承诺采取必要措施，以促进公职人员的廉正，建立合作关系并提高反腐败标准，