8 Aspects of the Early Cases

Subject(s):

Definition of investment — Annulment

This chapter focuses on key aspects of the cases brought to ICSID in its first two decades. Section I examines the ways in which successive Secretaries-General handled the registration of requests to institute proceedings and, in particular, their “screening” of such requests. Patterns in the constitution of the conciliation commissions and arbitral tribunals are traced in Section II, as are the first experiences of the Centre with the resignation and challenge of arbitrators. Section III discusses the distinctly pragmatic approaches of arbitral tribunals in this period to jurisdictional issues, especially the requirement of consent. There was controversy in the early 1980s as to the availability, in the context of an ICSID case, of court-ordered provisional measures. The controversy is reviewed in Section IV, which also looks at the first instances of arbitral provisional measures under Article 47 of the ICSID Convention. Section V examines the underlying interpretations of Article 42(1) of the Convention. Three ad hoc committee decisions rendered under Article 52 of the Convention are the subject of Section VI. Most of the few court proceedings for the enforcement of ICSID awards took place in these early years; the proceedings are reviewed in the concluding Section VII.