Argentina’s ICSID Arbitrations and the UNCC Experience: Consistency and Capability in Mass Claims

Abstract

When Argentina moved to restructure its sovereign debt, it triggered a flood of claims by foreign investors that risked overwhelming the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), which hosts the arbitrations. It seems likely that, whatever is decided for the Argentina claims, mass claims will continue to arise in arbitration as a logical consequence of globalization, the judicialization of disputes, and referral of disputes to arbitration in numerous bilateral and multilateral agreements. This paper considers how the United Nations Compensation Commission (UNCC) planned and then adopted mechanisms to deal with two different types of mass claims that resulted from the 1991 Gulf War, draws comparisons to the Argentina investment arbitrations, and makes some observations of where the UNCC experience provides a useful comparative case study in responding to mass claims with flexibility and inventiveness.

Keywords: mass claims, ICSID, UNCC, reparations, arbitration

JEL Classification: K33, K4