Of increasing interest in international business and arbitration, including in both the commercial and investment dispute areas, is the question of which substantive and procedural law standards apply when an arbitral tribunal knows or in any event suspects that a contract or the arbitration agreement contained within it is void or voidable by reason of corruption, illicit conduct, illegal subject matter or some other illegality.  Related to this question are the further questions of how the arbitral tribunal should approach the matter of verifying or upholding its own jurisdiction, the extent of separability of the underlying arbitration agreement from the affected contract, and the law or laws which may apply to each of these questions against the background of possible or manifest illegality. 

Originally published in "The International Who´s Who of Commercial Arbitration".  For more information please visit www.whoswholegal.com

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