2022 ICSID Arbitration Rules: Seven key takeaways

July 28, 2022

 

On 01 July 2022, the 2022 ICSID Rules and Regulations for resolving international investment disputes came into effect.

This is the first amendment to the ICSID Arbitration Rules since 2006 aimed at modernizing the ICSID procedures.

Here we cover seven key takeaways:

• Key steps in ICSID procedures will require mandated case management conferences with precise deadlines to make procedures more efficient. Tribunals must convene one or more case management conferences to identify uncontested facts, clarify and narrow the issues in dispute, or address any other procedural or substantive issue related to the resolution of the dispute.

• The Rules now provide for expedited arbitration procedures reducing case time in half and permitting a tribunal of one or three arbitrators.

• Any third-party funding arrangements must be disclosed to the Secretary-General upon registration of the request for arbitration, or immediately upon concluding a third-party funding arrangement after registration.

• The 2022 ICSID Institution Rules now require that at the request for arbitration filed with the Secretary-General include a description of the investment and of its ownership and control. Previously, no requirement was in place to describe the control of the investment. This creates a new consideration for claimants with complex investment structures. 

• Consent to publish awards, orders, and submissions is now the default position unless one of the parties expressly objects to such publication within 60 days after the dispatch of the document.

• There is now an express provision governing security for costs under Rule 53 of the new ICSID Arbitration Rules which provides a procedural timetable for security for costs applications and the considerations that must be made by the tribunal. 

• ICSID has also introduced its 2022 ICSID Mediation Rules for investment-related disputes and its 2022 ICSID Fact-Finding Rules.

• • The new Mediation Rules provide for an avenue for parties to resort to mediation under ICSID with or without a prior party agreement.
  • The new Fact-Finding Rules offer parties the option to constitute a committee to inquire into and report on relevant circumstances in the pre-dispute phase and provide an impartial assessment of facts arising in the dispute between the parties.