Major periodicals devoted to international commercial
arbitration
American Review of International Arbitration
Arbitration International
Arbitration, Journal of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators
ASA Bulletin (Swiss Arbitration Association Bulletin)
Croatian Arbitration Yearbook
Dispute Resolution Journal
International Arbitration Law Review
International Chamber of Commerce, International Court of Arbitration
Bulletin
Journal of International Arbitration
Journal of International Dispute Resolution
Mealey’s International Arbitration Reports
Revue de l’arbitrage
Rivista dell’ Arbitrato
Recht und Praxis der Schiedsgerichtsbarkeit
World Arbitration and Mediation Report
World Trade and Arbitration Materials
Yearbook of Commercial Arbitration
• Zeitschrift für Schiedsverfahren By Gold or Silver
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ICSID How long does it take ?
ICSID arbitration: how long does it take?
Thanks to fresh research the answer is known. Anthony Sinclair, of Allen &
Overy’s international arbitration group, with the help of colleagues Louise
Fisher and Sarah Macrory, analysed the timetables of the ICSID cases that, to
date, have produced an award. Their findings are summarised below
when lawyers in private practice or in-house counsel prepare estimates or budgets for legal expenditure, they are all
too aware that time means money. Yet when a potential claimant or respondent, facing an ICSID arbitration, asks
“how long will it take?”, do we really know? The reader will find some of the answers in the report below, which
summarises the key findings of a survey we undertook of the 115 ICSID cases that have led to an award (including
awards embodying settlement agreements), from the creation of the ICSID Centre through to 1 July 2009.
Most lawyers can think of horror stories of litigation gone off the rails or drawn-out wars of attrition. Presumably this
happens in ICSID arbitrations too, and these unusually long cases therefore affect some of the results reported below. Outliers may
never be eliminated since proceedings can derail and suffer excessive delay for all manner of reasons, whether particular to the
circumstances of the case, the parties or the tribunal. If Tolstoy had been an international arbitration lawyer, he might have said
“efficient proceedings are all alike; every inefficient proceeding is inefficient in its own way”. So little is likely to be learned by
dissecting the longer proceedings and seeking to identify a malignancy at their core, which may not even be there. “Efficiency” is
also a somewhat subjective concept: what is most efficient for the claimant may be prejudicial to a respondent. For these reasons,
we report only the data and our findings based upon it. We also focus primarily on average figures. No criticism is intended or
implied of any individual matter since the course of individual cases is inevitably dictated by its own particular features.
The data upon which we rely is available for all to see on the ICSID website, in the ICSID Annual Reports, and in the
helpful procedural summaries contained in most, if not all, ICSID awards. The data may contain errors or anomalies, in part
perhaps because of the authors’ own frailties, but also because of patchy reporting of rather mundane procedural matters. Even
so, it is still fair to analyse the body of ICSID cases as a whole, to consider the performance of the ICSID system on average,
and to take stock.
“About three years and seven months”
How long does an ICSID arbitration take? The answer from our survey is that ICSID arbitrations to date have taken 1,325 days
on average. That is 3.6 years, from the date the request for arbitration is filed
to the date of a final award. This figure does not factor in “cooling off”
periods before the formal commencement of proceedings, or the possibility
of annulment proceedings following an award.
Is 3.6 years “good” or “bad”? Who can say? It is not clear that there is
an “ideal” duration for an ICSID arbitration, since they vary to such a great
extent in their complexity, value, detail and sensitivity, not to mention the
volume of documents involved or number of witnesses to be heard. This
figure is also an average of different types of ICSID arbitrations. It includes
both the long and complex cases – with discrete phases, determination of
preliminary issues, and the need for numerous findings on disputed issues
of fact and law – and the shorter cases such as those in which jurisdiction
was denied.
Focusing purely on the more recent past, ICSID arbitrations may, on the whole, be shortening in duration. For the 32 cases
commenced in the past five years that have led to an award and for which data is available, the average time from the request for
arbitration to the award is closer to 3 By Gold or Silver
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Oxus
| 0:12 15/12/2012 | Major shareholders Oxus | ||||||||
| Major Shareholders Shareholder Type Amount % Holding RAB Capital PLC - 65,000,000 14.84 Zeromax GmbH - 57,897,085 13.21 Flamborough Property Ltd - 21,617,556 4.93 Darwin Strategic Ltd - 17,166,666 3.92 Director Holdings Name Type Amount % Holding Richard Shead - 5,944,519 1.36 Oliver Prior - 987,036 0.23 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Metal Tech Limited
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The use of an arbitrator to settle a dispute. News and analysis on international arbitration between foreign investors and their host governments. Thanks for sharing information.
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