In its judgment in the TSN case delivered on 19 November 2019, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Justice (the Court) had to determine whether, in adopting national measures on paid annual leave that are more generous than the minimum of four weeks' paid annual leave laid down in an EU Directive 1 , EU member states are bound to comply with the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU (the Charter) and, in particular, the requirements of the right to paid annual leave enshrined in its Article 31(2). Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, the Court held that the enactment of more protective paid leave rules cannot be regarded as falling within the scope of EU law. As a result, the member states do not have to ensure compliance with the fundamental rights laid down in the Charter when they adopt such measures. With this judgment, the Grand Chamber of the Court fine-tuned its interpretation of the scope of EU law as referred to in Article 51(1) of the Charter. According to that provision, as interpreted by the Court in Åkerberg Fransson, the Charter binds the member states only when they act within the scope of
A great deal has been written over the years about the evidence of corruption in international arbitration. In that context, this article offers a timely analysis of some of the most contentious rules and principles applicable in relation to the evidence of corruption allegations in investment arbitration. On the basis of an assessment of forty investment awards dealing with corruption, it is demonstrated that it matters relatively little which standard of evidence is applied by arbitral tribunals. The arbitral practice also reveals that, in recent years, arbitrators have come to rely more heavily on their discretion over evidentiary matters in order to contribute to the fight against corruption. This trend has materialized not only in relation to the arbitrators’ growing reliance on their investigative powers, but also their acceptance of more flexible means of evidence for the purpose of demonstrating the reality of corrupt practices.
Investment arbitration, Evidence of corruption, Standard of evidence, Means of evidence, Power to raise corruption matters sua sponte
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