​At its 36th Annual Meeting, held in Washington, D.C. on September 29, 2002, the Administrative Council of the Centre approved new amendments of the ICSID Regulations and Rules and the Additional Facility Rules of the Centre.

The ICSID Regulations and Rules comprise:

(i) the ICSID Administrative and Financial Regulations which regulate the details of the Centre's administration of conciliation and arbitration proceedings under the ICSID Convention;
(ii) the ICSID Institution Rules, which set out procedures for the initiation of conciliation and arbitration proceedings under the ICSID Convention;
(iii) the ICSID Arbitration Rules, which set forth procedures for the conduct of the various phases of an arbitration proceeding under the ICSID Convention, including the constitution of the arbitral tribunal, the presentation by the parties of their case, and the preparation of the arbitral award; and
(iv) the ICSID Conciliation Rules, which set forth similar procedures for the conduct of conciliation proceedings under the ICSID Convention.

Under the Additional Facility Rules, the ICSID Secretariat is authorized to administer certain categories of proceedings between States and foreign nationals that fall outside the scope of the ICSID Convention. These include fact-finding proceedings, as well as conciliation and arbitration proceedings for the settlement of investment disputes where either the State party to the dispute or the home State of the foreign national is not an ICSID member country. In addition to a brief set of rules prescribing basic conditions of access to the facility, the Additional Facility Rules comprise:

(i) the Additional Facility Administrative and Financial Rules, which are an abbreviated version of the ICSID Administrative and Financial Regulations;
(ii) the Additional Facility Conciliation Rules, which are the Additional Facility's counterpart of the ICSID Conciliation Rules;
(iii) the Additional Facility Arbitration Rules, which are the Additional Facility's counterpart of the ICSID Arbitration Rules; and
(iv) the Additional Facility Fact-Finding Rules.

The ICSID Regulations and Rules were first adopted by the Administrative Council of ICSID in 1967. They were amended by decision of the Administrative Council adopted in 1984. The amendments of 1984 did not make far-reaching changes to the ICSID Regulations and Rules; they were, instead, mainly intended to simplify certain provisions and to update others in the light of experience. Although they were closely modeled on the ICSID Regulations and Rules, the Additional Facility Rules did not benefit from the amendments of 1984. It was only in that year that it was decided to continue the Additional Facility indefinitely (the Additional Facility was first introduced in 1978 on a trial basis); and it was not until 1997 that the first Additional Facility case was registered.

The new amendments adopted by the Administrative Council on September 29, 2002 streamline the Additional Facility Rules in particular, clarify or update a few provisions of the ICSID Regulations and Rules and of the Additional Facility Rules, and make a few others more flexible.

As mentioned above, the Additional Facility Rules did not benefit from the amendments adopted in 1984 for the ICSID Regulations and Rules. In large part because of this, there were differences of detail between the Additional Facility Rules on the one hand and the ICSID Regulations and Rules on the other hand. Most of these differences were unnecessary and needlessly complicated the task of the ICSID Secretariat in simultaneously administering proceedings under the Additional Facility Rules and the ICSID Regulations and Rules. The majority of the new amendments eliminate such unnecessary differences. Simplifications made to the ICSID Regulations and Rules in 1984 have now been made to the Additional Facility Rules. The Additional Facility Rules have been further simplified by dropping the Additional Facility Administrative and Financial Rules and instead applying to Additional Facility proceedings the relevant provisions of the ICSID Administrative and Financial Regulations.

The drafting of a few of the provisions of the ICSID Regulations and Rules and of the Additional Facility Rules had proved to be confusing or unclear to parties. This was particularly true of the provisions on the nationality of arbitrators (Rule 1(3) of the ICSID Arbitration Rules and Article 7 of the Additional Facility Arbitration Rules). Under the new amendments, such provisions have been clarified without, however, changing their substance. A few other provisions did not reflect practices that had developed since the provisions were first written. Thus, for example, Rule 2 of the ICSID Institution Rules and Article 3 of the Additional Facility Arbitration Rules did not reflect the fact that companies requesting arbitration are now always asked to furnish evidence that they have taken the necessary steps internally to authorize the request. Under the new amendments, such provisions have been updated to reflect the current practice.

Finally, with the rising caseload, it had become apparent that certain provisions needed to be made more flexible. This was particularly so of such provisions as those of Rules 4 and 9 of the ICSID Arbitration Rules, which imposed unnecessarily rigid deadlines on decisions regarding the appointment and disqualification of arbitrators. The new amendments have introduced the needed flexibility.

The new amendments of the ICSID Regulations and Rules and the Additional Facility Rules will come into force on January 1, 2003.