The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) today published a compendium of State and public comments on proposed amendments to the Centre’s procedural rules for resolving international investment disputes.
The comments address proposals made in the ICSID Working Paper of August 3, 2018 and published in English, French and Spanish. A synopsis of the proposals is also available in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.
The overall goal of the proposals is to further modernize, simplify, and streamline the ICSID rules for arbitration, conciliation, mediation and fact-finding. The proposed rules address a wide range of issues that were raised by States and other stakeholders, including transparency, appointment and disqualification of arbitrators, security for costs, allocation of costs, consolidation of cases, and third-party funding. They also include numerous steps to reduce the time, cost and environmental footprint of proceedings.
This marks the fourth, and most comprehensive, update to ICSID’s rules. The proposed amendments cover the ICSID Regulations and Rules adopted pursuant to the ICSID Convention; the ICSID Additional Facility Rules; the Administrative and Financial Regulations; and the Institution Rules. These are the most widely used procedural rules for investor-State dispute settlement.
“We wish to thank the many States, organizations and individuals that took the time to consider the proposed amendments and have come back with very constructive feedback”, said Meg Kinnear, Secretary-General of ICSID.
Thirty-four States, the European Union and the African Union all provided public comments on the proposals. A further twenty-six individuals and organizations also submitted written input.
The compendium organizes these comments by the rules that they refer to, allowing readers to get a sense of the views advanced on each proposal. The compendium incorporates comments in the language in which they were received, and links each comment to the full submission of the commenting party.
The ICSID Secretariat is now in the process of updating the amendments based on these comments and will publish a further revised working paper in the spring of 2019.
The current version of the compendium includes comments received until January 15, 2019. Any further comments received by ICSID will be published on the ICSID website and incorporated into the compendium for the convenience of users.
Click here to download the Compendium of Member State and Public Comments on the Working Paper of August 3, 2018.
Further information on the rules amendment process is available on the ICSID website in English, French and Spanish:
• English: https://icsid.worldbank.org/en/amendments
• French: https://icsid.worldbank.org/fr/amendments
• Spanish: https://icsid.worldbank.org/sp/amendments