Research On Definition Of Investors Of The ICSID Convention

With the development of the integration of world economy, international investmentactivities are increasingly active. In the field of international investment, especially in thefield of private international investment, there always arise some investment disputes betweenthe investor and the host country. Whether these disputes can be solved timely and fairly notonly affects the direct economic interests of the investor, but also may influence the economicrelations between the investor and host country. In1965, the World Bank presided over thedrafting of Convention on Settlement of Investment Disputes Between States and Nationals ofOther States (also known as the ICSID Convention), which came into effect in the followingyear. Based on this, the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID)was set up, which is a special permanent body responsible for dealing with specificinternational investment disputes.It is over40years since the ICSID Convention came intoeffect. The signatories are continuously increasing. ICSID has accepted more and more caseson international investment dispute, which has played a more and more vital role in the fieldof international investment. However, practically the ICSID Convention has constantly shownthe tendency to expand its jurisdiction. Whether the controversy belongs to investment disputeor legal dispute, or whether the parties are qualified to appeal or not, or whether to agree withthe existence or not, the arbitral tribunal of ICSID always managed to warrant its jurisdiction.Thus it can not only bring to the host country restrictions which do not belong to the ICSIDConvention, but also damage the credibility of the arbitration mechanism of ICSID.This paper attempts to take the qualification for the investor in the ICSID Convention asa starting point, use the case study and the comparative analysis and combine the practicalapplication of the qualification in ICSID so as to make a comprehensive overview of thequalification for the investor. The whole passage is divided into four parts. The first partincludes an introduction to the ICSID Convention as well as the establishment and expansionof ICSID’s jurisdiction. Based on this, the paper points out that the qualification for the investor plays a very important role in the establishment of jurisdiction, which will be the keypoint of the whole paper. The next two parts are the body of the thesis. The qualifications forthe investor in the ICSID Convention will be analyzed and discussed in detail. The endingdiscussion will be made through two main writing lines: a natural person investor and a legalperson investor. The natural person investor will be analyzed from these two aspects:nationality conflicts and prescription of nationality. As for the legal person investor, inaddition of nationality identification, it mainly analyzes the identification of foreign controlon legal person investors in practical cases by ICSID. These two parts also summarize therelevant arbitration cases in ICSID to prove the trend to expand the identification of legalperson investors in practice. Finally, in the fourth part, based on the current situation in whichour country has joined the ICSID Convention, several measures on dealing with the expansionof the jurisdiction of ICSID will be put forward for our country to adapt better to WashingtonConvention.