The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID or the Centre) is established by the Convention on the Settlement of Investment Disputes between States and Nationals of Other States (the ICSID Convention or the Convention). As at April 10, 2006, 143 countries have ratified the Convention to become Contracting States. Under the ICSID Convention, the Centre provides facilities for conciliation and arbitration of investment disputes between Contracting States and nationals of other Contracting States. The jurisdiction of ICSID, or in other terms, the scope of the Convention, is elaborated upon in Article 25(1) of the Convention. According to Article 25(1), “[t]he jurisdiction of the Centre shall extend to any legal dispute arising directly out of an investment, between a Contracting State (or any constituent subdivision or agency of a Contracting State designated to the Centre by that State) and a national of another Contracting State, which the parties to the dispute consent in writing to submit to the Centre.”

The Administrative Council of the Centre has adopted Additional Facility Rules authorizing the Secretariat of ICSID to administer certain categories of proceedings between States and nationals of other States that fall outside the scope of the ICSID Convention. These are (i) fact-finding proceedings; (ii) conciliation or arbitration proceedings for the settlement of investment disputes between parties one of which is not a Contracting State or a national of a Contracting State; and (iii) conciliation and arbitration proceedings between parties at least one of which is a Contracting State or a national of a Contracting State for the settlement of disputes that do not arise directly out of an investment, provided that the underlying transaction is not an ordinary commercial transaction.

The Additional Facility Rules comprise a principal set of Rules Governing the Additional Facility and their three schedules: Fact-Finding Rules (Schedule A), Conciliation Rules (Schedule B) and Arbitration Rules (Schedule C). The latest amendments of the Additional Facility Rules adopted by the Administrative Council of the Centre came into effect on April 10, 2006.