Study On The Legal Issues Of ICSID Supervision System

In the area of international investment Dispute arbitration , The ICSID( International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes),which is established according to the Washington convention, provides a unique arbitration mechanism to settle the dispute between host countries and foreign investors for the investment. As developing countries attract foreign investment through improving its legal environment , the states parties of the convention are increasing, moreover, those state party also accepted the ICSID jurisdiction in the way of whole package "agree" under the treaty which containing the contents of investment protection in order to attract foreign investment, which led to ICSID caseload growth in volume. Foreign investors are prone to pushing the host country before the ICSID arbitral tribunal for the reason of violating the obligations under the treaty , for this ,the ICSID suddenly gained the authority and ruling power to judge the conduct of management of the host country ( sovereignty ). However, the ICSID also facing with a set of crisis such as the inconsistent arbitration award, the annulment system only review the procedural errors which was disregarded the substantial fairness, disregard of the host country's sovereignty and the public interest. Against this case, the voice attempt to reform the ICSID system are running high among the international community , the US-led a few countries are trying to establish a bilateral or multilateral treaty based arbitral appellate regimes focus on the investment disputes ; the Latin American countries , in particular , Argentina are appeal to go back "Calvo Doctrine", mean to the recovery of investment disputes jurisdiction ;even the ICISD itself is also take some steps to respond trying to establish a comprehensive ,single and permanent appeal mechanism to review the investor-state dispute arbitration award .Except the foreword and conclusion, this thesis including four parts, the second part and the third part are the highlights of this thesis.Part I, A brief overview of the ICSID arbitration supervision mechanism , with a brief introduction of current system which supervising the arbitration award under the ICSID, through the comparison each of the four oversight form under Washington Convention, which is supplementation and rectification,interpretation revision and annulment, to point out that the Annulment is able to produce substantial impact on the whole of the arbitration award and is a last line of defense and the basic system of arbitration supervision to maintain impartiality and consistency of the decision under ICSID tribunal.Part II, The defects and facing challenges of ICSID". First, begins with the reasons for annulment to clarify the supervision system of ICSID only review the procedural errors , which cause the lack of substantial fairness and possible to prejudice the public interest; Secondly, with case studies , to demonstrate that the arise of inconsistent award are due to the arbitral tribunal's inconsistent interpretation in the form as "In like situation," "MFN" and "Fair and Equitable Treatment". Finally, through discussing the recovery of"Calvo Doctrine"in Latin America, to point out that by reason of the owns defects , ICSID is facing the legitimacy challenges.Part III, The analysis of reform of ICSID supervision system, take the united states' practice to promote the reform of review system under investment arbitration by establishing arbitral appellate regimes as background , Comprehensively Analysis the attempts of ICSID to reform its review system through establishing a appeal facility ,especially focus on the obstacles to change, then concluded that the existing supervision system of ICSID is not perfect, but is still difficult to reform .Part IV, The China and ICSID, combined with the practice that the participation into ICSID of China, analyzing that to accept ICSID jurisdiction as whole may face risks and to give the appropriate recommendations.