II

6. The question of the desirability and practicability of establishing institutional facilities, sponsored by the Bank, for the settlement through conciliation and arbitration of investment disputes between States and foreign investors was first placed before the Board of Governors of the Bank at its Seventeenth Annual Meeting, held in Washington, D.C. in September 1962. At that Meeting the Board of Governors, by Resolution No. 174, adopted on September 18, 1962, requested the Executive Directors to study the question.

7. After a series of informal discussions on the basis of working papers prepared by the staff of the Bank, the Executive Directors decided that the Bank should convene consultative meetings of legal experts designated by member governments to consider the subject in greater detail. The consultative meetings were held on a regional basis in Addis Ababa (December 16-20, 1963), Santiago de Chile (February 3-7, 1964), Geneva (February 17-21, 1964) and Bangkok (April 27-May 1, 1964), with the administrative assistance of the United Nations Economic Commissions and the European Office of the United Nations, and took as the basis for discussion a Preliminary Draft of a Convention on Settlement of Investment Disputes between States and Nationals of Other States prepared by the staff of the Bank in the light of the discussions of the Executive Directors and the views of governments. The meetings were attended by legal experts from 86 countries.

8. In the light of the preparatory work and of the views expressed at the consultative meetings, the Executive Directors reported to the Board of Governors at its Nineteenth Annual Meeting in Tokyo, in September 1964, that it would be desirable to establish the institutional facilities envisaged, and to do so within the framework of an inter-governmental agreement. The Board of Governors adopted the Resolution set forth in paragraph 1 of this Report, whereupon the Executive Directors undertook the formulation of the present Convention. With a view to arriving at a text which could be accepted by the largest possible number of governments, the Bank invited its members to designate representatives to a Legal Committee which would assist the Executive Directors in their task. This Committee met in Washington from November 23 through December 11, 1964, and the Executive Directors gratefully acknowledge the valuable advice they received from the representatives of the 61 member countries who served on the Committee.