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2010 Inter Alia 39 (2010)
A Comment on the Clean Hands Doctrine in International Law

handle is hein.journals/ialia7 and id is 44 raw text is: INTER ALIA - STUDENT LAW JOURNAL A COMMENT ON THE CLEAN HANDS DOCTRINE IN INTERNATIONAL LAW9 Mr. Rahim Moloo Rahim Moloo is a Special Legal Consultant in the international arbitration group at White & Case LLP Washington D. C. where his practice focuses mainly on investor-state disputes. Rahim obtained a BSc (First Class) from Queen's University, an LL.B. from the University ofBritish Columbia and an LL.M in International Legal Studies from NYU. At NYU, Rahim was a Graduate Editor of the NYU Journal ofInternational Law and Politics and was named the All-University Valedictorian for Graduate and Professional Students. INTRODUCTION Equitable principles are a part of international law. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has confirmed that the legal concept of equity is a general principle directly applicable as law.'0 Among those equitable principles that international tribunals have applied is the concept that a claimant's claims may be barred due to its illegal conduct in relation to the claims he brings. This concept is known as the clean hands doctrine.41 As Sir Gerald Fitzmaurice has summarized: 'He who comes to equity for relief must come with clean hands'. Thus a State which is guilty of illegal conduct may be deprived of the necessary locus standi in judicio for complaining of corresponding illegalities 39 1 would like to thank Andrea Menaker and Stephen Ostrowski for helpful comments on an earlier draft of this article. The views expressed in this article are mine only and not those of White & Case LLP. 40 Case Concerning Continental Shelf (Tunisia/Libyan Arab Jamahiriya), Judgment of 24 February 1982, I.C.J. Reports 1982, 60 T 71. 41 See Bin Cheng, General Principles of Law as Applied by International Courts and Tribunals (Cambridge University Press, 1953) 155 (A Party who asks for redress must present himself with clean hands.); Ian Brownlie, Principles of Public International Law (7th ed. Oxford University Press, 2008) 503 (The clean hands doctrine under international law is a principle according to which a claimant's involvement in activity illegal under either municipal or international law may bar the claim.); See also Hersch Lauterpacht, Recognition in International Law (1947) 420-421 (The principle ex injuriajus non oritur is one of the fundamental maxims ofjurisprudence. An illegality cannot, as a rule, become a source of legal right to the wrongdoer.). INTER ALIA SUMMER 2010 39