ICSID Convention after 50 Years: Unsettled Issues

The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) has played a leading role in establishing the field of foreign investment law. It is primarily due to the ICSID that it is no longer peculiar for individuals and corporations to have legal standing in claims against governments - probably the most notable development of international law of the last half century. Now, in its fiftieth year and ratified by more than 150 states, the ICSID received in 2015 its 500th case. This book celebrates this anniversary with an overview and analysis of ICSID case law to date and, focusing particularly on unsettled issues, assesses possible developments in the institution's next phase.

This volume collects twenty-two essays by prominent practitioners with substantial experience in investment arbitration law. The topics they cover encompass such issues as the following:

- the political and economic reasons behind the creation of the ICSID;

- admissibility and jurisdiction;

- ICSID vis-à-vis bilateral investment treaties;

- States' concerns about the 'partiality' of arbitrators in favour of investors;

- applicable laws under the ICSID Convention;

- fact-finding rules;

- conflicting interpretations of ICSID Convention provisions;

- interaction of foreign investment and economic development;

- value of ICSID awards in the light of EU law;

- annulment of ICSID awards;

- effects of denunciation (Bolivia, Ecuador, Venezuela) and non-contracting States (Russia, Brazil, India);

- attribution of conduct of State-owned enterprises (SOEs);

- counterclaims;

- guarantees against political risk; and

- allocation of costs.

As a detailed response to the question whether ICSID has contributed as promised to an improvement in the investment climate and promoted the flow of private foreign capital - and as an assessment of the present and future feasibility of the ICSID system for the resolution of investment disputes by arbitration and conciliation - this book has no peers. Considering the current crisis of investment law, the book's immediate value not only to investors and their counsel but also to practitioners and academics in the field of investment law and arbitration and public international law cannot be overstated.

Dr Crina Baltag is the author of Kluwer's 2012 book The Energy Charter Treaty: The Notion of Investor and the Associate Editor of Kluwer Arbitration Blog.