International Business Law Advisor Insights on International Litigation & Transactions

International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) Releases Caseload Statistics

By Santiago A. Cueto on Posted in Dispute Resolution, International Arbitration

South America Hosts Majority of ICSID Cases

The International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) recently released a report on its caseload statistics. The report includes lots of interesting data and illustrative charts. One chart I found particularly noteworthy was the geographic distribution of ICSID cases by state party.

South America leads the pack with 30%, followed by Eastern Europe and Central Asia (22%), Sub-Saharan Africa (16%), Middle East and North Africa (10%), South & East Asia and the Pacific (8%), Central America and the Caribbean (7%) and North America (6%). Again, the statistics confirm the widespread use of ICSID arbitration around the globe.

ICSID

 

 

Another interesting chart shows the basis of consent invoked to establish ICSID jurisdiction. Sixty-two percent of all cases came from Bilateral Investment Treaties, while twenty-two percent came from investment contracts. An additional eleven percent came from various multilateral treaties (Energy Charter 5%, NAFTA 4%, ASEAN 1%, DR-CAFTA 1%), and five percent came from the investment law of the host state.

As one commenter mentioned “the fact that ICSID cases are derived from so many different sources–domestic law, contracts, bilateral treaties, and multilateral treaties–underscores the vibrancy of ICSID investment arbitration.”

Finally, the frequency with which ICSID cases are pursued is also significant, with over half of all ICSID cases in its thirty-seven year history registered in the past six years.

These are promising statistics and show increased demand for ICSID arbitration.

Now if we can only get Brazil to ratify some BITs and the ICSID Convention…

Trend to Watch: Look for ICSID cases to Increase Further As Governments Step-Up Their Efforts to Attract Foreign Capital.

 -Santiago

  • Quinn Smith

    Santiago,
    Interesting post. Following up on your Brazil comments. We attended a talk by Welber Barral last week, who is the minister of foreign trade for Brazil. In his remarks, he stated Brazil is discussing BITs with Chile and Mexico and multilateral agreement with South Africa through Mercosur. So it appears Brazil is moving on the investment treaties front.
    In spite of these recent moves, we still do not foresee Brazil ratifying the Washington Convention any time in the near to mid term. They just don’t need it to attract foreign capital.