Studies On The Enlargement Tendency Of ICSID Jurisdiction

Economic globalization is now an irresistible trend. The economic links between counties becomes increasingly tighter. No country can develop well without investment. Especially, international investment has become a key incentive to the economic development of every country. The rapid development of international investment has give rise to various investment disputes. On the contrary, the effective settlement of such disputes also motivates the growth of international investment. Settlement of investment disputes, between states and nationals of other states, is therefore of great significance.The 1965 Convention on the Settlement of Investment Disputes between States and Nationals of Other States is an international convention designed to settle such disputes. The International Center of Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), established under the Convention, is a standing body providing conciliation and arbitration convenience for the settlement of such disputes. After over 40 years'operation, ICSID arbitration has become one of the most important methods of international investment dispute settlement and it is now playing a more and more important role in the area of international investment.Jurisdiction is the basis of judgment. Being a major problem of ICSID mechanism, ICSID jurisdiction has evoked intensive discussion by scholars and also objections and controversies by and between the parties to the disputes. The Convention stipulates prerequisites for its jurisdiction. However, the practice of ICSID for the decades has demonstrated that the tribunals have not complied with the stipulations strictly. On the contrary, there is a tendency of enlargement of ICSID jurisdiction.Since 1990s, China has been a contracting state of the Convention. So far there is no specific case concerning China. Yet, with China's entry into WTO, people gradually realize that only by understanding, abiding by and taking advantage of the international playing rules can we benefit from the play avoid risks. Meanwhile, China has integrated ICSID clauses in many of its bilateral investment treaties with other countries and China's overseas investment is also growing rapidly. Therefore, to implement a case law review of such tendency basing on the previous cases of ICSID is of great importance to our further understanding of its jurisdiction and the protection of China's and Chinese investors'interests.There have already been abundant writings as well as case law studies on the topic of ICSID jurisdiction. Compared with foreign scholars, however, our studies are still limited. This article intended for a comprehensive case law review of such tendency basing on the previous cases and proposals for China to confront with such tendency. Therefore, this article contains three chapters: Chapter 1 briefly introduces the stipulations on ICSID jurisdiction by the Convention, Chapter 2 is the case law review of the enlargement tendency of ICSID jurisdiction and Chapter 3 deals with the proposals.