ICSID CASES IN 2020, AFFECTED OR NOT BY COVID 19
Mihai BERINDE, Dana Maria PETRICA, Liana-Eugenia MESTER
Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Oradea, Oradea, Romania
Abstract: The present paper intends to present the evolution registered in the ICSID – International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes – cases during FY2020, comparing with the historical evolution, in order to identify the possible effect of COVID 19 on the dynamics of registering and administrating cases and also in the hearings, if any. Many economic sectors had been deeply affected by the pandemic, and they have shown a real capability to adapt their way of acting and doing things. International arbitration made no difference, and it showed a real adaptive capacity, allowing the existing cases to follow their path and also registering new cases without delays. In 16 April 2020 the leading organisation of arbitration (the CRCICA, DIS, ICC, ICDR/AAA, ICSID, KCAB, LCIA, MCA, HKIAC, SCC, SIAC, VIAC and the International Federation of Commercial Arbitration Institutions) released a common statement on COVID 19: “Collaboration is particularly important as each of our institutions looks to ensure that we make the best use of digital technologies for working remotely.” The first element to be notice in the 2020 ICSID Statistics is the fact that the number of the cases registered during 2020 had touched a new record, 58 new cases. The previous record was of 56, and was registered in 2018, meanwhile in 2019 there were registered 39 new cases. One big difference occurred in the way of holding the hearings, in the last 9 months of the year 2020, all the hearings were held remotely, 78% by video and 22% by phone. ICSID had developed and used their one video conferencing platform. In terms of industry, States parties involved, proceedings outcomes, nationality of arbitrators appointed there were some evolutions but with no significant changes.
Keywords: ICSID; damages; foreign direct investment; international disputes
