Almost a third of lawyers believe corruption allegations in arbitration have increased over the past decade amid calls for changes to prevent arbitration becoming a haven for abuse, according to BCLP’s annual arbitration survey.

As many as 31% of respondents think such corruption has increased in the last 10 years, while more than a fifth had either personally experienced allegations of corruption involving an arbitrator (23%) or knew about accusations of corruption being used as a basis for challenging an award (21%).

Meantime, 42% had experience of corruption allegations involving witnesses of fact, while 63% had experience of corruption allegations being raised as a defence in investor-state arbitration.

Against that backdrop, 64% of respondents were concerned about the risk of abuse of the arbitral process in cases involving allegations of corruption. By contrast, 67% said they favoured introducing transparency rules for commercial arbitrations involving states or state-owned entities, while almost three-quarters of respondents thought the arbitration process would benefit from additional best practice guidelines for arbitrations involving allegations of corruption.

Speaking to GLP, BCLP international arbitration partner George Burn said: “Corruption and the challenges it poses to arbitration is a very hot topic, but there is still a debate over what steps can and should be taken to protect the integrity of the arbitration process. We hope our survey results make a valuable contribution to the ongoing debate on this topic.”

The Arbitration and the Challenges of Corruption survey was released as lawyers this week marked Anti-Corruption Day on 9 December, with the United Nations and the World Economic Forum estimating the global cost of corruption at 5% of the world’s gross domestic product.

In the report’s foreword, Burn said: “The High Court decision in Nigeria v Process & Industrial Developments highlighted the challenges faced by arbitrators when dealing with corruption allegations and the impact that this can have on the reputation of arbitration as a method of dispute resolution.

“This year’s survey canvases views on some of those risks and asks whether change is needed to avoid arbitration becoming a safe harbour for corruption. In his judgment in the P&ID case, Mr Justice Knowles expressed the hope that the facts and circumstances would provoke debate and reflection among the arbitration community.”

BCLP’s survey gathered opinions on various associated risks from 131 respondents; 61.1% were from a common law background, 12.2% were from a civil law background, and 18.3% from both.

The survey comes on the heels of ongoing research by the International Bar Association, which launched an anti-corruption study in 2023 to gather data on the existence and effectiveness of anti-corruption and anti-money laundering legislation globally.

The IBA research also discussed how lawyers could use soft law guidance, as devised by lawyers themselves, to ensure ethical, legal practice and combat anti-corruption at an event held jointly with Chatham House, mirroring some of BCLP’s evidence on best practice.