Guide to ICSID Arbitration

The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) has become the leading arbitration institution for resolution of investor-state disputes, especially as ICSID may administer arbitrations initiated under such multilateral treaties as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the growing number of bilateral investment treaties (BITs). Accordingly, familiarity with the regime and jurisprudence of ICSID arbitration is an essential component of any international investment venture.

This Guide to ICSID Arbitration, written by three leading practitioners in the eminent international law firm of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, fills the gap in the literature between generic descriptions and academic commentary on ICSID or its aspects. It provides a sufficiently detailed but still user-friendly understanding of what ICSID arbitration is, when and how it can and should be used, and how an ICSID case works from start to finish. It offers potential and non-expert users of the ICSID regime as well as those generally interested in international commercial arbitration with the essentials of the ICSID Convention and of BITs, the various sets of rules, ICSID procedure, and the rapidly developing ICSID jurisprudence.

The Guide includes the following: an introduction to the ICSID regime; a discussion of the comparative merits of ICSID and other forms of arbitration; the basics of ICSID contractual arbitration; the basics of ICSID arbitration under bilateral and multilateral investment treaties; illustrative treaty materials, including discussion and comparison of BITs, and the full text of model and sample BITs and Chapter 11 of NAFTA; a description of the main ICSID rules and how a typical ICSID case develops in practice; a discussion of the unique features of annulment, recognition and enforcement of ICSID awards, with reference to the main awards to date; extensive annexes of basic ICSID documents, along with texts of relevant treaties and a chart of BITs entered into between ICSID Member States; and a selective bibliography of resources, for those who desire a more detailed and analytical understanding of ICSID arbitration and ICSID case law.

Guide to ICSID Arbitration will be of immeasurable value to international investors, corporate counsel, businesspersons, government legal advisers, interested lawyers and arbitrators, and students of dispute resolution. Pitched at an ideal location between academic scholarship and introductory texts, it offers parties in all these areas a full-fledged practical guide to the day-to-day realities of international investment dispute resolution in today's world.