Jurisdiction of ICSID in Foreign Investment Arbitration
Keywords:
ICSID, settlement of foreign investment disputes, investor, host state, ICSID jurisdictionAbstract
The ICSID Convention is one of the most important treaties in international economic law, recognizing individuals as subjects of international law and serving as a forum for the settlement of international investment disputes accepted by many states (ICSID, 1965). A foreign investor should not be concerned about entrusting the fate of an investment dispute to domestic courts. Designating the host state's judiciary as the forum for dispute resolution increases the investor’s concern regarding potential lack of impartiality. In contrast, ICSID, as a neutral arbitral institution with both subject-matter jurisdiction and personal jurisdiction—along with its Additional Facility—can encompass a wide range of foreign investment disputes and reduce foreign investors’ concerns regarding the impartiality of the dispute-resolution forum, especially given that it is accepted by most countries. Iran is not a party to the ICSID Convention, despite being a member of the 1958 New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards and despite expressing willingness to remove legal barriers and fill legal gaps in the field of foreign investment. Nonetheless, Iran’s non-accession to the ICSID Convention does not appear to be justified.
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Copyright (c) 2025 Neda Heydari Moghadam (Author); Ahmad Fatemi (Corresponding author); Mohammad Ali Kafaeifar (Author)
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