The Proposal for an International Anti-Corruption Court: What Law Should the Court Apply?

If the International Anti-Corruption Court (IACC) were established, the question of what law it should apply would be an essential one. That would determine what offences the IACC would adjudicate and, by extension, what contribution it would be able to make to international accountability for corruption. This article sheds some light on how this issue might be addressed by discussing a broad range of relevant considerations, including: the IACC’s objectives; the (incomplete) international consensus on the definition of corruption; the ramifications of including money laundering within the IACC’s jurisdiction; the extent to which it should defer to domestic laws of the state where the alleged offence took place; and the implications of the principle of legality.