{"id":17539,"date":"2026-09-09T17:11:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T15:11:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/?p=17539"},"modified":"2026-09-09T17:11:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T15:11:15","slug":"icsid-publishes-first-background-paper-on-contract-based-arbitration-and-revised-model-clauses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/2026\/09\/09\/icsid-publishes-first-background-paper-on-contract-based-arbitration-and-revised-model-clauses\/","title":{"rendered":"ICSID Publishes First Background Paper on Contract-Based Arbitration and Revised Model Clauses"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On June 30, 2026, <span class='tooltipsall tooltipsincontent classtoolTips18'>ICSID<\/span> published a <a href=\"https:\/\/icsid.worldbank.org\/sites\/default\/files\/publications\/Contract-Based_ICSID_Arbitration-Background_Paper.pdf\">Background Paper on Contract-Based ICSID Arbitration<\/a>, with data to December 31, 2025. It records 175 contract-based cases registered since 1972, 16% of the total ICSID caseload, of which 47% arise in oil, gas, and mining, a far higher share than the 26% those sectors represent in the overall caseload. Tribunals <a href=\"https:\/\/icsid.worldbank.org\/news-and-events\/news-releases\/icsid-publishes-first-study-contract-based-cases-statistics-and-clauses\">declined<\/a> jurisdiction in only 14% of contract-based awards, against 20% across the overall caseload, and analysis of the data shows investors <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pinsentmasons.com\/out-law\/news\/icsid-data-shows-growth-contract-based-claims\">succeeding<\/a> more often than in treaty-based cases. In June 2026 ICSID also issued a revised set of <a href=\"https:\/\/icsid.worldbank.org\/resources\/content\/model-clauses\">Model Clauses for Contracts<\/a>, providing drafting language for submitting disputes to ICSID, including under the Additional Facility. The publications confirm institutionally what practitioners have observed: as states retreat from treaties, protection is migrating into the contracts they negotiate directly. Given the extractive sector&#8217;s dominance of this caseload, the quality of mining and petroleum contract drafting is becoming as consequential for state exposure as treaty policy itself.<\/p>\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips18','International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips63','Bilateral investment treaty'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips67','Energy Charter Treaty'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips72','Investment Court System'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips114','Sistema de Tribunales de Inversiones'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips116','European Commission'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips117','European Union'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips118','Union europ\u00e9enne'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips119','Uni\u00f3n Europea'); <\/script>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On June 30, 2026, <span class='tooltipsall tooltipsincontent classtoolTips18'>ICSID<\/span> published a Background Paper on Contract-Based ICSID Arbitration, with data to December 31, 2025.<script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips18','International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips63','Bilateral investment treaty'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips72','Investment Court System'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips116','European Commission'); <\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":17540,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[397],"tags":[1900],"class_list":["post-17539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-current-issue"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17539"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17539\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17543,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17539\/revisions\/17543"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}