Investor Presentaiton
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party to the treaty, in the absence of agreement of the disputing
parties. A common specification, frequently found in IIAs for non-
ICSID Convention cases, is that the seat be in a State party to the
New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of
Arbitral Awards, a choice that facilities enforcement of the award.68
National laws of the seat apply to the arbitration, e.g., they can
impose additional requirements concerning the arbitration's
confidentiality. Local courts of the seat perform supervisory and
support functions, e.g., ordering provisional measures. An arbitral
award can be subject to set-aside proceedings in the place of
arbitration in accordance with the laws of that State.
70
69
Arbitrations proceeding under the ICSID Convention are “de-
localized" in that they proceed entirely under the auspices of the
Convention. They are subject only to annulment under the terms of
the ICSID Convention, which provides for the appointment of ad
hoc committees to review ICSID Convention awards. Hence, the
notion of the seat of arbitration is irrelevant for arbitrations under
the ICSID Convention.
E. Arbitration and domestic courts
Often IIAs explicitly include domestic tribunals as one of the
options for resolving investor-State controversies. Even if they do
not, domestic courts are usually available for settling these disputes,
although the investor's claim might be based on domestic law rather
than an alleged violation of an IIA.
68 An illustrative example can be found in Article 16(11) of the Japan-
Papua New Guinea BIT (2011): "Unless the disputing parties agree
otherwise, the arbitration shall be held in a country that is a party to the
[1958 New York] Convention".
69
On provisional measures, see section II.I.
70 See section II.Q.1.
UNCTAD Series on International Investment Agreements IIView entire presentation