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The Singapore Law Gazette

ICC International Court of Arbitration: A Journey of a Hundred Years

History of the ICC International Court of Arbitration

To understand the establishment of the ICC International Court of Arbitration (ICC Court), it is important to shed light on the founding of International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) itself. In 1919, the ICC was founded in the aftermath of the First World War by a group of entrepreneurs who envisioned revitalisation of global trade and business to rehabilitate the war-torn economy. This group of entrepreneurs called themselves the Merchants of Peace, an epithet that is still in use today by those who work at the ICC in making business work for everyone, every day, everywhere.

As these Merchants of Peace rebuilt the world economy, the necessity to have a body to help resolve commercial disputes to enable access to justice and upholding the rule of law resonated. And so, the ICC Court was founded on 19 January 1923.1For the detailed historical timeline of the ICC Court’s establishment, please visit: https://iccwbo.org/dispute-resolution-services/centenary-icc-court/. Although “Court” by name, the ICC Court does not adjudge disputes referred to it per se, but instead it exercises supervisory authority to monitor the proceedings of disputes, including the financial aspects thereof, in compliance with the ICC Rules of Arbitration (ICC Rules).

Since its inception more than a century ago, the ICC Court has been structured to achieve its objective as an international arbitral institution that is completely impartial and independent. This unique proposition of not just being an arbitral institution, but a part of the ICC which has been granted a seat in the United Nations as an Observer.2For more information on this, please visit: https://iccwbo.org/media-wall/news-speeches/un-general-assembly-grants-observer-status-international-chamber-commerce-historic-decision/ This allows the ICC Court not just to resolve disputes but also to support the flow of international trade and investment in line with ICC’s mission at large.

Key Milestones of the ICC Court3Ibid.

With particular focus on its role as visionary rule-maker, its global expansion, and growth in Asia, here are some of ICC Court’s select key milestones for the past century:

1920  ICC Constitution and Commission on Arbitration created (later renamed Commission of Arbitration and ADR)4To know more about the work and reports published by the ICC Commission on Arbitration & ADR, please visit: https://iccwbo.org/dispute-resolution-services/commission-on-arbitration-and-adr/
1922 The first ICC Rules of Arbitration were promulgated
1923  ICC Court inauguration meeting and first case submitted
1927 ICC helps broker The Geneva Convention on the Execution of Foreign Awards
1958 ICC submits the Preliminary Draft Convention of The New York Arbitration Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards
1972 ICC International Centre for ADR established
1975 ICC sets up the Committee of the Court
1980s Introduction of more advanced arbitration clauses
1995 Party representation from South and Far East Asia exceeds North America for the first time
1996 The number of parties from Western Europe represents less than 50% of all parties
1998 ICC publishes new Rules of Arbitration (updated versions thereof were published in 2012, 2017, and 2021)
2008 The opening of the case management office in Hong Kong
2014 The ICC Court opens new case management office in New York
2018
  1. The opening of the case management office in Sao Paulo, Brazil with a state of art hearing centre
  2. The opening of the case management office in Singapore
2021
  1. The opening of the case management office in Abu Dhabi, UAE
  2. The election of the first woman as President of ICC Court
  3. ICC arbitral awards made available, free of charge, to the global legal community via Jus Mundi
2022 ICC reaches major arbitration milestone with 27,000th case
2023 Centenary of the ICC Court, ICC Declaration on Dispute Prevention and Resolution issued

Organisational Structure of the ICC Court

Structure-wise, the ICC Court is led by a President who serves on a three-year term that may be renewed for another term. The President of the ICC Court works together with Vice Presidents and the Members of the ICC Court from around the world as well as the Secretariat of ICC Court who are led by its Secretary General. The ICC Court and Secretariat of the ICC Court are made up of qualified lawyers with expertise in international arbitration and dispute resolution and professional support personnel.

Presently, there are 17 Vice-Presidents and one 195 Members from 121 countries within the ICC Court.5For the full list of Vice Presidents and Members of the ICC Court, please visit: https://iccwbo.org/dispute-resolution-services/icc-international-court-arbitration/court-members/. The Secretary General of the ICC Court directs the overall operation of the ICC case management offices and oversees the ICC administered arbitrations in their entirety. There is a total of 12 case management teams based out of six major cities: Paris, Singapore, Hong Kong, New York, São Paulo, and Abu Dhabi, to cater to clients’ needs around the world. Typically, each case management team is headed by a Counsel and comprises Deputy Counsel(s) who together speak numerous languages and are conversant with major legal traditions.6For the full list and contact particulars of the Secretariat of ICC Court staffers, please visit: https://iccwbo.org/contact-us/contact-management-teams-international-court-arbitration/.

Working of the ICC Court and its Secretariat

The ICC Court is the independent arbitration body, the composition of which is explained above and has its own Statutes and Internal Rules. Its functions include, constitution of the arbitral tribunal, scrutiny of awards, managing financial aspects of the proceedings, and monitoring the proceedings. The ICC Court is also called upon from time to time to decide on consolidation, approval of terms of reference, make decisions on whether the case should proceed and fixing place of arbitration in case the parties are unable to agree.

The Secretariat assists the ICC Court and performs a variety of functions in the management of cases and assisting the ICC Court is its decision-making process. Operating initially out of Paris, the first overseas case management team began its operations in Hong Kong in 2008. Serving as an intermediary between the Parties/ arbitral tribunal and the ICC Court, its functions include managing and overseeing cases on daily basis such as notifying request for arbitration, request for joinder or consolidation, transmission of the file to the arbitral tribunal upon its constitution, notifying awards, reviewing of correspondences and submissions and assisting the ICC Court in its decision making by bringing its attention to details of the case, among others.

As of May 2022, the ICC Court has administered more than 27,000 arbitrations.7The number stated is as per May 2022. For more details, please visit: https://iccwbo.org/media-wall/news-speeches/icc-reaches-major-arbitration-milestone-with-27000th-case/ The testament to the organisation’s expertise and services does not stop there. It has been consistently recognised as the world’s most preferred and/or used arbitral institution by global stakeholders as demonstrated in the popular Queen Mary University of London Surveys on International Arbitration in recent years.8To access full copies of the relevant QMUL Survey reports, please visit: https://arbitration.qmul.ac.uk/research/2021-international-arbitration-survey/, https://arbitration.qmul.ac.uk/research/2019/ , https://arbitration.qmul.ac.uk/research/2018/

Transparency, accountability, efficiency, enforceability, and diversity and inclusion are the core values of the ICC Court and these key elements are discussed below:

1. Efficiency

There are ways in which time and cost efficiencies are implemented in ICC matters for parties’ benefits, which have been accepted favourably, as highlighted below:

First, ICC Expedited Procedure Provisions (EPP) have streamlined proceedings with reduced fees and faster procedural timelines and are available as an avenue to parties on opt-in basis.9For details, see: https://iccwbo.org/dispute-resolution-services/arbitration/expedited-procedure-provisions/ Under EPP, arbitral tribunals must issue the award within six (6) months after the first case management conference is conveyed. EPP operates by default in ICC cases with amount in disputes of no more than USD3 million.

Second, ICC Court also manages emergency arbitration in circumstances where parties seek urgent and temporary reliefs to preserve their rights pending constitution of an arbitral tribunal10For details, see: https://iccwbo.org/dispute-resolution-services/arbitration/emergency-arbitrator/. The emergency arbitrator must then issue order within 15 days from his/her appointment.

Third, the recently released ICC Case Connect marks the organisation’s commitment to deliver a user-friendly, safe and confidential, and easily accessible online case management platform as a time and cost saving tool for parties and third-party neutrals in ICC arbitrations. Important features such as document sharing and procedural history tracking and updates can be used in the platform.

2. Transparency

The ICC Court champions transparency in disputes proceedings as it adds to the legitimacy of the entire process. To achieve such objective, the ICC Court endeavours the following:

First, ICC Rules provide the opportunity for parties to request the ICC Court to communicate reasons behind its decisions on matters related to decisions on, amongst others, challenges of arbitrators, jurisdictional objections and consolidation (cf. Appendix II, Article 5(2) of the ICC Rules).

Second, the ICC Court publishes online the names, nationalities, types of appointment, and numbers of appointments of arbitrators in ICC arbitration as reference for ICC users and stakeholders11For this publication, please visit: https://iccwbo.org/dispute-resolution-services/arbitration/icc-arbitral-tribunals/.

Third, Article 11(7) of the ICC Rules stipulates disclosure requirements of third-party funding arrangements which speak to a “non-party with an economic interest in the outcome of the arbitration.”

Fourth, the collaboration of ICC and Jus Mundi on two notable things: one, the publication of arbitral awards and related documents thereto (redactable where necessary) are accessible for free by legal community (in circumstances where parties object, the publication will not take place)12For details, please visit: https://jusmundi.com/en/partnership/icc, and two, with the ICC Dispute Resolution Library accessible via Jus Mundi platform, members of legal community can now utilise over 7,500 documents such as arbitral awards, ICC Dispute Resolution Bulletin, ICC Commission on Arbitration & ADR Reports, and many more.13For details, please visit: https://jusmundi.com/en/icc-dispute-resolution-library

3. Independence and Impartiality

ICC Rules require arbitrators to be independent and impartial. Upon accepting their appointments, arbitrators in ICC arbitrations must fill in a Statement of Acceptance, Availability, Impartiality and Independence where they must state any circumstance that may give rise to reasonable doubt concerning their independence and impartiality.14For non-exhaustive list of what shall be disclosed by the prospective arbitrators, please see Paragraphs 22-36 of ICC Note to Parties and Arbitral Tribunal on the Conduct of Arbitration under ICC Rules of Arbitration which is accessible here: https://iccwbo.org/publication/note-parties-arbitral-tribunals-conduct-arbitration/ Article 14 of the ICC Rules also stipulate procedures on challenge of arbitrators which may be invoked by parties on the basis of doubt towards the arbitrators’ independence and impartiality.

4. Enforceability

One of the hallmarks of ICC arbitration is the scrutiny of draft arbitral awards which must be submitted by the arbitral tribunal to the ICC Secretariat. The draft awards will normally go through a three-level process wherein the Counsel, Management and Court Members will oversee the application of Rules and, as Article 34 of the ICC Rules specifies, lay down modifications as to the form of the award and, without affecting the arbitral tribunal’s liberty of decision, may also draw its attention to points of substance. Through the scrutiny process, the ICC Court does it best to ensure that the draft award has clear reasoning and that it addresses parties’ claims and defences accordingly. The ICC Court takes an extra mile by factoring in the requirements of laws of the place of arbitration, when practicable, for enforceability of the award.

5. Diversity and inclusion (D&I)

The ICC Court continues to press upon efforts to narrow gender and cultural disparities as it firmly believes that more diversity is bound to enhance the arbitration process in the long term and make available to users of ICC’s services – the best of talent and minds.

Work on this front has included disclosure of statistics on the gender balance of ICC tribunals to increase transparency and bring in accountability, increasing number of women appointments being made and confirmed by ICC Court and pledging support as a signatory of the Equal Representation in Arbitration Pledge to name a few.

The new configuration of the ICC Court for its 2021-2024 mandate makes it the most gender and geographically diverse composition in the ICC Court’s history.

As for appointments, there has been an increase in not only gender diversity which increased from 7.7% in 2011 to 24.3% in 2021, but also geographical diversity wherein the number of arbitrators confirmed or appointed by the ICC Court increased from 1,341 arbitrators from 78 countries in 2011 to 1,525 arbitrators from 99 countries in 2021.

Acknowledging the efforts of the ICC Court on D&I front, during the annual Global Arbitration Review Awards in 2022, ICC was awarded the Equal Representation in Arbitration Pledge Award for its pioneering work for building LGBTQIA network within the global legal community and for the ICC Task Force on Disability Inclusion and International Arbitration.15For details, please visit: https://iccwbo.org/media-wall/news-speeches/icc-receives-equal-representation-in-arbitration-pledge-award/ and https://iccwbo.org/media-wall/news-speeches/icc-names-new-disability-and-inclusion-task-force-leadership/.

ICC and Singapore

Singapore houses ICC’s Asia Regional Office and the Case Management office which came into operation following a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between ICC and the Singapore Ministry of Law.

Singapore has consistently retained position as the number one ranking place of ICC Arbitration in Asia Pacific (APAC).

In 2021, Singapore is ranked 5th globally as the most invoked place of arbitration in ICC administered arbitrations. In previous years, Singapore was globally ranked 4th in 2017, 6th in 2018, 4th in 2019, and 6th in 2020. This makes Singapore the most preferred place of arbitration over any other jurisdiction in the APAC region.

In the same annual year, there were a total of 35 appointments made for Singaporean arbitrators. This makes Singaporean, by way of nationality of appointed arbitrators, ranked 11th globally in terms of appointment in ICC arbitrations. In years’ prior, the statistics also showcase consistent figures which are summarised as follows:

  1. In 2017, 25 Singaporean arbitrators were appointed and ranked 16th globally.
  2. In 2018, 35 Singaporean arbitrators were appointed and ranked 11th globally.
  3. In 2019, 26 Singaporean arbitrators were appointed and ranked 15th globally, and
  4. In 2020, 31 Singaporean arbitrators were appointed and ranked 15th globally.

The Road and Journey Ahead

Celebrating its Centenary, the ICC Court looks back to what defines it as an entity which comprises Merchants of Peace and the core values of not just rule of law and natural justice but also the entrepreneurial spirit that comes with being part of the world’s apex business organisation.

The ICC Court looks forward to working together with partners and stakeholders worldwide in not just resolving disputes, but also in preventing disputes. On 19 January 2023, the ICC Court published the Centenary Declaration on Dispute Prevention and Resolution which sets out the ICC Court’s principles and priorities to strengthen its role in ensuring access to justice and rule of law through, amongst others, dispute resolution prevention and resolution process, thought leadership, and capacity building moving forward.16To view the Declaration, please download the document at: https://iccwbo.org/publication/icc-centenary-declaration-on-dispute-prevention-and-resolution/?dm=bypass

The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of ICC or the ICC International Court of Arbitration.

Endnotes

Endnotes
1 For the detailed historical timeline of the ICC Court’s establishment, please visit: https://iccwbo.org/dispute-resolution-services/centenary-icc-court/.
2 For more information on this, please visit: https://iccwbo.org/media-wall/news-speeches/un-general-assembly-grants-observer-status-international-chamber-commerce-historic-decision/
3 Ibid.
4 To know more about the work and reports published by the ICC Commission on Arbitration & ADR, please visit: https://iccwbo.org/dispute-resolution-services/commission-on-arbitration-and-adr/
5 For the full list of Vice Presidents and Members of the ICC Court, please visit: https://iccwbo.org/dispute-resolution-services/icc-international-court-arbitration/court-members/.
6 For the full list and contact particulars of the Secretariat of ICC Court staffers, please visit: https://iccwbo.org/contact-us/contact-management-teams-international-court-arbitration/.
7 The number stated is as per May 2022. For more details, please visit: https://iccwbo.org/media-wall/news-speeches/icc-reaches-major-arbitration-milestone-with-27000th-case/
8 To access full copies of the relevant QMUL Survey reports, please visit: https://arbitration.qmul.ac.uk/research/2021-international-arbitration-survey/, https://arbitration.qmul.ac.uk/research/2019/ , https://arbitration.qmul.ac.uk/research/2018/
9 For details, see: https://iccwbo.org/dispute-resolution-services/arbitration/expedited-procedure-provisions/
10 For details, see: https://iccwbo.org/dispute-resolution-services/arbitration/emergency-arbitrator/
11 For this publication, please visit: https://iccwbo.org/dispute-resolution-services/arbitration/icc-arbitral-tribunals/
12 For details, please visit: https://jusmundi.com/en/partnership/icc
13 For details, please visit: https://jusmundi.com/en/icc-dispute-resolution-library
14 For non-exhaustive list of what shall be disclosed by the prospective arbitrators, please see Paragraphs 22-36 of ICC Note to Parties and Arbitral Tribunal on the Conduct of Arbitration under ICC Rules of Arbitration which is accessible here: https://iccwbo.org/publication/note-parties-arbitral-tribunals-conduct-arbitration/
15 For details, please visit: https://iccwbo.org/media-wall/news-speeches/icc-receives-equal-representation-in-arbitration-pledge-award/ and https://iccwbo.org/media-wall/news-speeches/icc-names-new-disability-and-inclusion-task-force-leadership/.
16 To view the Declaration, please download the document at: https://iccwbo.org/publication/icc-centenary-declaration-on-dispute-prevention-and-resolution/?dm=bypass

Director
Arbitration & ADR in South Asia
ICC Dispute Resolution Services

Deputy Director
Arbitration & ADR in South Asia
ICC Dispute Resolution Services