Welcome to the fourth video of this module dedicated to the Arbitration of Investment Disputes. In this video we will focus on the International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes ICSID. You will learn the specific features of ICSID, how it works, and why it is the most frequently used forum for investment disputes. The ICSID was created in 1965 by the Convention on the Settlement of Investment Disputes between states and nationals of other states called the ICSID Convention or the Washington Convention. The treaty entered into force in 1966. It was created under the auspices of and as part of the World Bank Group and it has its seat in Washington. The establishment of the center, as explained in the first video of this module, coincided with the increased practice of including arbitration in concession contracts. It also builds further on the idea of providing a neutral international forum to settle investment disputes. ICSID's purpose as stated in the preamble is to stimulate economic development through the promotion of foreign investment by providing a neutral forum for the settlement of investment disputes. ICSID currently has 153 contracting parties. ICSID is governed by an administrative council composed of one representative of each contracting state. It is chaired by a Chairman who amongst other functions has the authority to appoint an arbitrator if the parties fail to do so. ICSID further has a secretariat headed by a Secretary-General who is responsible for its administration. The Secretary-General has several important function in the arbitral procedure, since the secretariat's legal counsels act as secretaries to the arbitral tribunals. ICSID in a way resembles the PCA. It is an arbitration institution which administers arbitrations and maintains a list of arbitrators. As the PCA, ICSID is not a standing tribunal. If the parties to an investment dispute wish to submit a dispute to arbitration under the ICSID Convention, a tribunal needs to be established for each dispute. Arbitrators can be members of the ICSID list of arbitrators, but individuals from outside that list can also be appointed. ICSID also provides for facilities for conciliation. ICSID has several specific features, and differs in those respects from the PCA, other arbitration institutions, or arbitration under the uncitral arbitration rules. I Will now turn to some of the specificities. First, submitting a dispute to ICSID automatically incorporates the ICSID arbitration rules, which are thus to be applied to the proceedings. One cannot conduct arbitration under the ICSID Convention while using other arbitration rules. Secondly, ICSID has a specific provision detailing which disputes can be submitted to the center. Article 25 of the ICSID Convention which I invite you to read carefully, entitled to jurisdiction of the Center establishes five conditions. A dispute arising directly out of an investment between the national of one contracting party and another contracting party, which the parties consent in writing to submit to the center. This implies that ICSID's jurisdiction is restricted to investment disputes. For instance, disputes which are alien to an investment cannot be brought to ICSID. While the convention does not define what an investment is, several tribunals have over the past years defined it using what is now known as the Salini criteria, named after the award of the tribunal in the case Salini versus Morocco. Also ICSID's jurisdiction extends only to mixed disputes, namely disputes between a state and a national of another state. Both states must have ratified the convention. Note In this respect that nationals who have the nationality of both the home state and of the host state are excluded. Finally, Article 25 of the ICSID Convention requires consent in writing. Having ratified the Convention is not sufficient. Consent as explained in the previous video is nowadays mostly contained in investment treaties. I should point out that in the case of ICSID arbitration, one must conform to these principles, but you should keep in mind that the foreign investors should also meet the definitions of investment and investor of the treaty as explained in the previous video. This is often described as the double barrel test. A third specific feature of the ICSID Convention is that awards rendered under the Convention are more easily enforceable. ICSID awards are to be recognized and enforced automatically by all ICSID member states as if these were decisions of domestic courts. And Non-ICSID arbitrations, recognition and enforcement is regulated by the 1958 New York convention, which lists the grounds on which a national court or of a signatory state can refuse recognition or enforcement of an award, including on public policy grounds. ICSID proceedings and awards on the contrary are fully internationalized. Because domestic courts cannot interfere during or after the proceedings. This feature makes ICSID very attractive for foreign investors. The counter side of the automatic enforcement is that on limited grounds contained in Article 52 of the convention, each party to a dispute can request the annulment of an award. Such procedures are decided by an ad hoc Committee composed of arbitrators appointed by the chairman of the ICSID Administrative Council and which functions very much like an arbitral tribunal. This procedure can of course take time but it is a completely international procedure. So far, ICSID has registered 597 cases. The majority of which have been brought since the early 2000's. In this video, you have learned about the ICSID and more specifically the special features of this arbitration institution. In the next video, we will have a close look at the public interest in investment arbitration and the rules relating to transparency of proceedings.