Objection under Rule 41(5) of the ICSID Arbitration Rules

Abstract

RULE 41(5) WAS INTRODUCED INTO the ICSID Rules of Procedure for Arbitration Proceedings with the 2006 amendment of the Centre’s Regulations and Rules. Rule 41(5) allows a respondent to raise an objection that a claim is manifestly without legal merit at the preliminary stage of an arbitration proceeding. If the objection is sustained, the claim will be dismissed. In the first three years of the existence of Rule 41(5), only 2 out of 72 cases registered under the ICSID Convention, Trans-Global Petroleum, Inc. v. Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan (“Trans-Global”) and Brandes Investment Partners, LP v. Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (“Brandes”), were challenged under the Rule, and both cases survived the challenge. It took four years from the adoption of Rule 41(5) for the third and fourth challenges to be brought under