The Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) is a non-UN intergovernmental organization headquartered at the Peace Palace, in The Hague, Netherlands. Unlike a judicial court in the traditional sense, the PCA provides administrative support in international arbitrations involving various combinations of States, State entities, international organizations and private parties. The cases span a range of legal issues involving territorial and maritime boundaries, sovereignty, human rights, international investment, and international and regional trade. The PCA is constituted through two separate multilateral conventions with a combined membership of 124 Contracting Parties. The PCA is not a United Nations agency, but has been a United Nations observer since 1993.
The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) is an international arbitration institution established in 1966 for legal dispute resolution and conciliation between international investors and States. ICSID is part of and funded by the World Bank Group, headquartered in Washington, D.C., in the United States. It is an autonomous, multilateral specialized institution to encourage international flow of investment and mitigate non-commercial risks by a treaty drafted by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development's executive directors and signed by member countries. As of May 2016, 153 contracting member states agreed to enforce and uphold arbitral awards in accordance with the ICSID Convention.
International arbitration can refer to arbitration between companies or individuals in different states, usually by including a provision for future disputes in a contract or between different states qua states.
Stephen Myron Schwebel, is an American jurist and international judge, counsel and arbitrator. He previously served as judge of the World Bank Administrative Tribunal (2010–2017), as a member of the U.S. National Group at the Permanent Court of Arbitration, as president of the International Monetary Fund Administrative Tribunal (1993–2010), as president of the International Court of Justice (1997–2000), as vice president of the International Court of Justice (1994–1997), and as Judge of the International Court of Justice (1981–2000). Prior to his tenure on the ICJ, Schwebel served as deputy legal adviser to the U.S. Department of State (1974–1981) and as assistant legal adviser to the U.S. Department of State (1961–1967). He also served as a professor of law at Harvard Law School (1959–1961) and Johns Hopkins University (1967–1981). Schwebel is noted for his expansive opinions in momentous cases such as Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons, Military and Paramilitary Activities in and Against Nicaragua and Oil Platforms .
Ex aequo et bono is a Latin phrase that is used as a legal term of art. In the context of arbitration, it refers to the power of arbitrators to dispense with application of the law, if appropriate, and decide solely on what they consider to be fair and equitable in the case at hand. However, a decision ex aequo et bono is distinguished from a decision on the basis of equity and even tribunals with ex aequo et bono powers generally consider the law too. "Whereas an authorisation to decide a question ex aequo et bono is an authorisation to decide without deference to the rules of law, an authorisation to decide on a basis of equity does not dispense the judge from giving a decision based upon law, even though the law be modified".
Emmanuel Gaillard was a prominent practicing attorney, a leading authority on international commercial arbitration, and a law professor. He founded the international arbitration practice of the international law firm Shearman & Sterling before launching Gaillard Banifatemi Shelbaya Disputes, a global law firm dedicated to international arbitration, in 2021. He frequently acted as an arbitrator in international commercial or investment disputes.
Tai-Heng Cheng is a Singaporean legal scholar, lawyer, and international arbitrator. He currently resides in United States of America as a permanent resident.
Thomas W. Wälde, former United Nations (UN) Inter-regional Adviser on Petroleum and Mineral Legislation, was Professor & Jean-Monnet Chair at the Centre for Energy, Petroleum and Mineral Law and Policy (CEPMLP), Dundee.
Makhdoom Ali Khan, is a Pakistani lawyer who is a Senior Advocate Supreme Court. Khan has held several positions, including Attorney General of Pakistan, chairman of the Pakistan Bar Council, member of the Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan, board member of the Federal Judicial Academy of Pakistan and of the Sindh Judicial Academy.
James Richard Crawford, AC, SC, FBA was an Australian academic and practitioner in the field of public international law. He was a Judge of the International Court of Justice from February 2015 to his death in 2021. From 1990 to 1992 Crawford was Dean of the Sydney Law School where he was also the Challis Professor of International Law from 1986 to 1992. From 1992 to 2014, he was Whewell Professor of International Law at the University of Cambridge and Fellow in Law at Jesus College, Cambridge. He was formerly Director of the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, also at Cambridge.
Saleem Marsoof, PC is a Sri Lankan judge and lawyer. He is a judge of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka and former President of the Court of Appeal. He is also a non-resident Justice of Appeal of the Supreme Court of Fiji.
Alan Vaughan Lowe is a barrister and academic specialising in the field of international law. Chichele Professor of Public International Law in the University of Oxford, and a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, 1999–2012; Emeritus Professor of International Law and Emeritus Fellow of All Souls College, University of Oxford, since 2012; visiting professor, University of Chichester, 2024.
Investor–state dispute settlement (ISDS), or an investment court system (ICS), is a set of rules through which states can be sued by foreign investors for certain state actions affecting the foreign direct investments (FDI) of that investor. This most often takes the form of international arbitration between the foreign investor and the state. As of June 2024, over US$113 billion has been paid by states to investors under ISDS, the vast majority of the money going to fossil fuel interests.
Albert Jan van den Berg is a founding partner of Hanotiau & van den Berg in Brussels, an emeritus Professor of Law at the Erasmus University, Rotterdam, a visiting professor at Georgetown University Law Center, Washington DC and at the University of TsinghuaArchived 2018-08-10 at the Wayback Machine School of Law, Beijing and a member of the advisory board and Faculty of the Geneva Master of Laws in International Dispute Settlement (MIDS), Geneva.
Pierre-Marie Dupuy is a French jurist. Since 1981 he is a law professor at Panthéon-Assas University, of which he is on leave since 2000. From 2000 to 2008 he was Professor of International Law at the European University Institute in Florence. Since 2008 he works in the same capacity at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva.
Sir Franklin Delow Berman, is a British barrister and leading authority in international law. He was Legal Adviser to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office from 1991 to 1999.
Siegfried H. Elsing is a German business lawyer. He is senior partner Germany of the international law firm Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP and honorary professor at the Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf.
Sean David Murphy is an American international law scholar and practitioner currently serving as the Manatt/Ahn Professor of International Law at the George Washington University Law School in Washington, D.C., where he has been teaching since 1998. His primary areas of scholarly research are public international law, foreign affairs and the Constitution of the United States, international organizations, international dispute settlement, and law of the sea. Murphy served for ten years on the Board of Editors of the American Journal of International Law and is a former president of the American Society of International Law. He was elected twice by the United Nations General Assembly to serve as a Member of the U.N. International Law Commission (ILC) during 2012-2022. He was named by the ILC as Special Rapporteur for Crimes Against Humanity, a topic on which he has lectured widely.
J. Martin Hunter was a British solicitor specializing in arbitration. He was an emeritus professor at Nottingham Trent University and was a visiting lecturer, fellow or professor at various universities around the world. He died on 9 October 2021.
August Reinisch is an Austrian public international lawyer.
