Grounds for annulment under the ICSID Convention are thus...

Thankyou Sir for the initial link upon which the corresponding one below was ascertained.

Comforting to know that as of the draft date, since 2018, the 26 annulment requests have only ever resulted in 1 full & 1 partial annulment,

Which equates to a 92.3% success rate against either partial or full annulment being successfully claimed against the awarded party.

I'll take em if they're the odds?

ICSID Awards - Global Arbitration Review

The ability to seek the annulment of arbitral awards rendered under the aegis of the Convention on the Settlement of Investment Disputes between States and Nationals of Other States (the ICSID Convention or the Convention) is one of the key features of the regime at the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes. It enables a party to challenge the validity of an arbitral award, within the bounds of the Convention’s limitative grounds for annulment as they are listed in Article 52(1) of the Convention and notwithstanding the ICSID regime’s foundational principle of finality of ICSID awards. Furthermore, the regime significantly constrains the role of domestic courts in connection with the recognition and enforcement of awards.

ICSID arbitration remains very active. During 2020, a total of 54 new arbitrations were instituted under the ICSID Convention and three pursuant to the ICSID Additional Facility Rules.^[2] The Convention also continues to attract new Member States, with Djibouti becoming, as of June 2020, the 155th state to ratify the Convention since its entry into force in 1966.^[3] Nevertheless, the ICSID annulment and enforcement regime still faces a number of challenges, ranging from the degree of scrutiny of ICSID awards in the annulment process to the recognition and enforcement of intra-EU investment treaty awards, as well as growing instances of non-compliance with adverse awards.

Annulment of ICSID awards

Overview of grounds for annulment and statistics According to Article 53(1) of the ICSID Convention, an ICSID award ‘shall be binding on the parties and shall not be subject to any appeal or to any other remedy except those provided for in [the] Convention’. Thus, the procedure for annulment under the Convention is the only procedure by which an ICSID award can be challenged. Furthermore, unlike procedures for setting-aside decisions rendered by domestic courts and those that can be appealed to domestic higher courts, annulment decisions rendered by ICSID ad hoc committees are final and are thus not subject to any type of additional review. This aspect is viewed by many as an essential safeguard provided by the ICSID regime, which permits control of the ‘fundamental integrity of the ICSID arbitral process in all the facets’^[4] while ensuring the ‘finality and stability of ICSID awards’.^[5] Consequently, Article 52(1) of the Convention limits the possibility of seeking the annulment of an ICSID award to the following five grounds:

1. that the Tribunal was not properly constituted;
2. that the Tribunal has manifestly exceeded its powers;
3. that there was corruption on the part of a member of the Tribunal;
4. that there has been a serious departure from a fundamental rule of procedure; or
5. that the award has failed to state the reasons on which it is based.

1. that the Tribunal was not properly constituted;
2. that the Tribunal has manifestly exceeded its powers;
3. that there was corruption on the part of a member of the Tribunal;
4. that there has been a serious departure from a fundamental rule of procedure; or
5. that the award has failed to state the reasons on which it is based.

Grounds for annulment under the ICSID Convention are thus limited and annulment proceedings are to be clearly distinguished from appeal proceedings before domestic courts, whereby a substantive de novo review of the lower court’s factual and legal findings is often allowed.^[6]

Recent ad hoc committee practice confirms the exceptional nature of the annulment mechanism. Since February 2018, 26 annulment proceedings have led to a decision on annulment. Only one award has been annulled in full^[7] and one award annulled in part.^[8]

These statistics confirm the more restrictive approach to annulment adopted by ICSID ad hoc committees over the years. Nevertheless, the number of applications for annulment registered at ICSID has been steadily increasing, from only three in 2010^[9] to 19 in 2020.^[10]