This post first appeared on the Securities Arbitration Alert blog. The blog’s editor-in-chief is George H. Friedman, Chairman of the Board of Directors for Arbitartion Resolution Services, Inc.
CSID recently released updated caseload stats.
Although we tend to think that most investment disputes in the U.S. are resolved by FINRA, this is not entirely accurate. A case in point: the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (“ICSID”) just released its updated caseload stats through fiscal year 2023 (July 1, 2022 – June 30, 2023). According to its Website: “ICSID is an international facility available to States and foreign investors for the resolution of investment disputes. Established in 1966 by the Convention on the Settlement of Investment Disputes between States and Nationals of Other States (the ICSID Convention), it is the only global institution dedicated to international investment dispute settlement.” As of December 31, 2022, 158 countries have signed the Convention; the U.S. signed in 1965. ICSID has arbitration rules and provides an arbitration forum; arbitrations “are entirely voluntary and require consent of both the investor and State concerned.”
New Report on Case Stats
The Report, which was announced in an August 8 Press Release, is laden with a wealth of statistical data, going back to 1972. Here are some highlights repeated verbatim from the release:
- ICSID registered 45 cases in FY2023 … under its procedural rules for resolving international investment disputes. Arbitrations under the ICSID Convention accounted for the largest share of new cases (40 cases), followed by arbitrations applying the ICSID Additional Facility Rules (five cases).
- As of June 30, 2023, ICSID had registered a total of 933 cases under the ICSID Convention and Additional Facility Rules.
- An additional 22 cases were administered under other procedural rules—marking a new record. Most (16 cases) applied the arbitration rules of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL).
- The majority of newly registered cases in FY2023 (37%) asserted ICSID jurisdiction on the basis of a bilateral investment treaty (BIT). This is a smaller share than the trend in previous years—overall, 59% of ICSID cases have invoked BITs.
- A variety of multilateral agreements also accounted for a significant share of new cases, most notably the Energy Charter Treaty (13% of cases), the North American Free Trade Agreement (12% of cases), and the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (12% of cases). Parties also instituted proceedings relying on the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (4% of cases), the ASEAN-China Investment Agreement (2% of cases), the Canada-Peru Free Trade Agreement (2% of cases), and for the first time, the Mexico, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua FTA (2% of cases).
- A further 10% of cases were brought on the basis of contracts between a host State and investor, and 6% on domestic investment laws.
The Release adds that: “This issue of the caseload statistics introduces a new format that makes it easier to compare annual and historical data on ICSID cases.”
(ed: ICSID does a service to its constituents by publishing this information.)
