The place of the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) additional facility in international commercial arbitration

Abstract

The additional facility was made available to the world in 1978 by the International  Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID)1. It is a detailed and  extensive body of rules fashioned or tailored for proceedings that are not otherwise  under the jurisdiction of ICSID. Traditionally, ICSID is “a forum for investor-state  arbitration and conciliation”2, which focuses on settlement of legal disputes arising  directly out of investment between “contracting” states or state entities and nationals of other “Contracting” states which the parties consent in writing to submit to the  centre.3 Additional facility was therefore developed and offered to the world by the centre to fill some of the lacunae left by the limited traditional ICSID jurisdictional  scope. This article examines the place of the additional facility if any in international  commercial arbitration.