This report provides detailed statistics on the use and operation of the ICC's dispute resolution services in 2010. The first and largest part is devoted to arbitration, which is the ICC's leading dispute resolution activity. This is followed by shorter sections on amicable dispute resolution (ADR), expertise, DOCDEX, dispute boards and services provided by the ICC in ad hoc arbitration proceedings.

2010 was a year of growth in several areas of these services. In particular, their use became more widespread than ever before. Arbitration attracted a record 2,145 users from an unprecedented 140 countries and independent territories. Greater use of ICC arbitration outside Europe was reflected in a growth in the number of parties and arbitrators from other regions and the choice of places of arbitration more frequently in those regions, especially Central and West Asia. Use of ICC arbitration also expanded further into the public as well as the private sector, with a growth in the participation of states and parastatal entities (particularly in cases where the ICC was requested to appoint arbitrators). Another interesting development was the increased use of ICC arbitration to resolve disputes between parties from the same country (18% of 2010 cases). Beyond arbitration, there was a sharp rise in referrals to the ICC International Centre for Expertise, which received almost twice as many cases as in 2009. The geographical origins of the parties and the experts involved in these cases and the nature of the disputes were also more diverse than previously.

To equip itself for an increasingly global caseload, the ICC expanded its resources devoted to dispute resolution. During the year, staff numbers in the Secretariats of the International Court of Arbitration and the International Centre for ADR rose to over 80, including more than 40 lawyers of some 20 different nationalities, with a command of all the languages in which proceedings were conducted.

Arbitration

A total of 793 new cases were filed with the ICC International Court of Arbitration in 2010. At the end of the year, a record 1,485 cases were being administered by the Court. Over the past ten years, the Court's workload has grown by 40%. Growth has been particularly strong during the last three years, with the number of cases handled by the Court rising by 15% between 2007 and 2010. All indications suggest that this level of activity will be matched in 2011.

Parties

The total number of parties involved in cases filed in 2010 was 2,145. This 2% increase on 2009 is explained by a 4% rise in the number of multiparty cases. They continued to represent around a third of the ICC International Court of Arbitration's total caseload. Cases involving multiple respondents were twice as numerous as those involving either multiple claimants or multiple claimants and respondents. The great majority of multiparty cases involved between three and five parties, while the largest number of parties in any one case was 24.

Geographical origins

The parties involved in the cases filed in 2010 came from a total of 140 different countries and independent territories. This record figure represents an increase of almost 10% over 2009 and reflects the ever widening use of ICC arbitration across the world. 50% of parties were from Europe, 24% from the Americas, 20% from Asia and the Pacific, and 6% from Africa.

Africa

The increasing participation of African parties in ICC arbitration was confirmed in 2010. Over the last ten years, the number of African parties involved in cases filed with the ICC Court has grown by 82%. Last year's increase was due largely to an unprecedented rise in the number of parties from Zimbabwe and record numbers of parties from North Africa (up by almost 16% on 2009).

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Americas

US parties continued to be the most numerous of all nationalities in ICC cases. 2010 saw the number of US parties rise by 14% from 2009. A rise was also recorded in the number of parties from Latin America and the Caribbean, which grew by 23% from 241 in 2009 to 297 in 2010 (with record figures for Mexico, the British Virgin Islands and Jamaica). Also, a wider range of nationalities was recorded than ever before.

Asia & Pacific

Cases filed in 2010 involved parties from a record 36 countries in Asia. The numbers of parties from several countries in West Asia, specifically the Arab states of the Persian Gulf, also reached record levels. In ten years, the number of parties from Central and West Asia has increased by 240%. In South and East Asia, parties from India and China (including Hong Kong) outnumbered all other nationalities.

* 27 from Mainland China (9 claimants, 18 respondents); 24 from Hong Kong (14 claimants, 10 respondents).

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Europe

French and German parties continued to be the most numerous of all European nationalities, Between them, they accounted for over a quarter of all parties from Europe in cases filed in 2010. The third place was taken by Turkish parties, for the first time ahead of Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom and Switzerland. Worldwide, Turkish parties were the fourth most frequent nationality, rising from tenth position in 2009. The number of Central and East European countries and independent territories increased in 2010 and included newcomers Kosovo, Montenegro and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

In brief: most frequent nationalities worldwide

Cases filed in 2010 involved in excess of 50 parties from each of the countries listed below

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Single nationality cases

An increasing number of disputes referred to ICC arbitration are between parties from the same country. In 2010 such disputes represented 18% of the ICC's new caseload. The use of ICC arbitration for domestic disputes was most apparent in the countries listed below. This trend affected a total of 51 nationalities in 2010.

State and state-owned parties

The number of cases involving one or more states or parastatals rose to 79 in 2010, representing 10% of all cases filed during the year. The number of states and parastatals involved in these cases exceeded 100, up by 17% on 2009. A notable change in 2010 was the rise in the number of parastatals from North and West Europe, which reached double figures for the first time. Central and East Europe continued to be the region with the greatest concentration of state and parastatal parties, followed by Sub-Saharan Africa, as shown in the chart below.

The state or parastatal was a responding party in almost 80% of these cases.

The areas of the economy most affected by disputes involving states and parastatal entities were: the construction industry, the energy sector (oil, gas, electricity), finance and insurance, telecommunications, and transport. The chart below shows the breakdown of cases between these sectors.

In 2010, one case was received involving an intergovernmental organization.

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Arbitral tribunals

Constitution

Arbitrators in ICC cases are either nominated by the parties or the other arbitrators (in the case of three-member tribunals), or appointed by the Court. Nominations by parties and other arbitrators have to be confirmed by the Court or its Secretary General. Appointments are made either on the basis of a proposal from an ICC national committee, or directly by the Court. The total number of appointments and confirmations in 2010 rose to 1,331, from 1,305 in 2009.

Below is a breakdown of these appointments and confirmations by category of arbitrator (sole arbitrator, co-arbitrator, presiding arbitrator).

Before their appointment or confirmation, arbitrators are required to sign a statement of independence and disclose any facts or circumstances that might be of such a nature as to call into question their independence in the eyes of the parties. If disclosures are made, the statement of independence becomes 'qualified'. 220 (16.5%) of the 1,331 appointments and confirmations recorded in 2010 were made on the basis of qualified statements of independence.

In 2010, the Court refused to confirm 22 nominations of arbitrators, 16 of which had given rise to qualified statements of independence.

Challenges, resignations and replacements of arbitrators

The composition of arbitral tribunals may be affected by incidents occurring after their constitution.

Challenges 'for an alleged lack of independence or otherwise' (Article 11(1) of the ICC Rules of Arbitration) were introduced in 34 cases against a total of 46 arbitrators. 6 of the challenges were accepted by the Court.

Resignations were tendered by arbitrators on 40 occasions. All but 2 of these resignations were accepted by the Court.

In addition to replacements made following a challenge or a resignation, 3 arbitrators were replaced at the request of all parties pursuant to Article 12(1) of the Rules and a further 3 replacements were made at the Court's initiative pursuant to Article 12(2) due to the arbitrators' failure to fulful their functions.

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Geographical origins

The arbitrators appointed and confirmed in 2010 came from 73 countries, as listed below. The last ten years have seen a change in the breakdown by region, with 59% of arbitrators originating from North and West Europe in 2010 as opposed to 66% in 2001. There has been a proportionate increase in the numbers of arbitrators from other regions, with Central and West Asia showing most growth in 2010 (up by 63% on 2009 and by 159% over the last ten years).

Arbitrators: top 15 nationalities

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Places of arbitration

A total of 98 different cities in 53 countries were selected as places of arbitration in 2010. In 89% of cases, the place of arbitration was chosen by the parties. In the remaining 11% of cases, the place of arbitration was fixed by the ICC International Court of Arbitration, sometimes within a country for which the parties had already expressed a preference.

A breakdown by region shows that some 70% of the places of arbitration selected in 2010 were in Europe, 14% in Asia and the Pacific, 14.5% in the Americas, and 1.5% in Africa, as compared with, respectively, 77.5%, 9%, 13% and 0.5% ten years ago. In 2010, a notable development was the frequency with which places of arbitration were chosen in Central and West Asia, particularly in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.

Country-by-country breakdown: number of arbitrations seated in each country

In all 14 cases seated in China, the place of arbitration was Hong Kong. Of the 44 cases seated in the USA, 23 were seated in the State of New York, 11 in Florida, 3 in California and 1 each in Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Missouri, New Jersey, Texas and Washington D.C.

Places of arbitration: top 10 cities selected

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Choice of law

In the cases filed with ICC in 2010, the great majority of parties had exercised their freedom to choose the law applicable to the merits by including provisions to that effect in their contracts. In 99% of cases they had chosen a state law. Other choices were the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (7 contracts), ICC's Incoterms® rules (2 contracts) and amiable composition (1 contract).

The parties' choices covered the laws of 91 different nations. The most popular choices were as follows:

Where US laws had been chosen, the most common choice was New York law (47%), followed by the laws of the states of California (12%), Delaware (11%), Florida (7%), Maryland and Texas (6% each). Altogether, the laws of 12 different US states were chosen. As far as Canada is concerned, the parties' choices covered the laws of 4 different provinces, with the law of Ontario being the most frequent choice (6 out of 10 clauses).

The above figures reflect the positive choices made by parties when drafting their contracts. They do not take account of the decisions on the applicable law made by arbitrators after the proceedings have begun. Nor do they include negative choices, whereby parties exclude the application of certain rules of law.

Nature of the disputes

In 2010, disputes from all sectors of the economy were referred to ICC arbitration. Construction and engineering disputes accounted for almost 17% of the total caseload. The number of energy-related disputes rose by 25% to represent almost 13% of all cases registered during the year. Other prominent sectors were finance and insurance (9.1% of cases), telecommunications and information technology (8.2% of cases) and transport (7.1% of cases).

Equally varied was the value of the disputes, which ranged from less than US$ 50,000 to over US$ 1 billion. Some 25% of disputes concerned amounts less than one million US dollars. Disputes valued at between one and 30 million dollars constituted the largest proportion of ICC's caseload, with the average amount in dispute in cases filed in 2010 being slightly in excess of US$ 25 million. The aggregate value of all disputes pending before the Court at the end of the year was just short of US$ 90 billion.

Amounts in dispute (US dollars)

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Awards

The total number of awards approved by the ICC International Court of Arbitration rose by 15% compared with 2009 to reach a record figure of 479. These awards comprised 305 final awards, 130 partial awards and 44 awards by consent.

The range of languages in which awards were drafted extended to 12. In 79.25% of cases the language used was English. The other languages used were: French (7.26%), Spanish (4.15%), German (3.11%), Portuguese (1.87%), Italian (1.66%), Czech (0, 83%), Polish (0.83%), Turkish (0.41%), Chinese (0.21%), Greek (0.21%) and Russian (0.21%).

All awards drafted by ICC arbitral tribunals are submitted to the International Court of Arbitration for approval before being issued to the parties. On such occasion, the Court may lay down modifications as to the form of the award and/or draw the attention of the arbitral tribunal to points of substance. The Court's scrutiny of awards enables improvements to be made to enhance their enforceability. The Court used its power to lay down modifications as to form and draw attention to points of substance when scrutinizing 444 (92.7%) of the awards approved in 2010. On a further 43 occasions, the Court requested that the arbitral tribunal resubmit its award for approval.

Awards drafted by arbitral tribunals composed of three members are decided unanimously in the overriding majority of cases. In 2010, just 46 awards were made by a majority decision and none by the chair of the tribunal alone. Majority awards are sometimes accompanied by dissenting opinions expressed by the member in the minority. In just over 60% of cases, the minority decision was recorded in a separate document and in slightly more than 20% of cases it was included in the body of the award. In the remaining cases, no dissenting opinion was explicitly expressed, but the award was referred to as a majority decision.

If it is necessary to correct or interpret an award after it has been rendered, the arbitral tribunal issues an addendum, which constitutes part of the award. In 2010, 34 addenda correcting or interpreting an award were issued by ICC arbitral tribunals. On 23 occasions, the arbitral tribunal dismissed a request for correction or interpretation of its award.

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ADR

During 2010, a total of 13 new cases were filed under the ICC ADR Rules, which provide for the settlement of disputes amicably by such means as mediation, conciliation, neutral evaluation, or combinations of these and other techniques. In 9 of the cases, the technique selected to settle the parties' dispute was mediation, in 2 cases adjudication, in 1 case conciliation, and in the remaining case both mediation and neutral evaluation were used. All but one of the cases were commenced on the basis of a clause in the parties' contract specifying ICC ADR. In 8 cases, the dispute resolution clause provided for an escalation process, with arbitration as a second step if the case could not be resolved by ADR. The parties reached a settlement in 10 of the cases commenced in 2010.

The 41 parties involved in the cases filed in 2010 came from a total of 18 countries, as listed below. The proportion of European parties rose to 73.2%, notably due to five multiparty cases involving, among others, 21 European parties. 12.2% of the remaining parties were from the Americas, 12.2% from Asia and 2.4% from Africa.

The 12 neutrals appointed in the 2010 cases were nationals of Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the USA. In one case, no neutral was appointed as the parties reached a settlement independently. In another case, three experts were appointed in addition to the neutral. In this case, the person chosen as neutral was the mediator ranked highest by the parties from a list put forward by the ICC.

The disputes underlying the ADR cases filed in 2010 were of various kinds and sizes. 5 disputes concerned the supply of energy, 4 industrial manufacturing, 1 infrastructure construction services, 1 general trade and distribution, 1 finance and insurance activities, and 1 the pharmaceutical industry. The amounts in dispute ranged from just over US$400,000 to in excess of US$ 100 million and averaged US$ 14.5 million. All of the cases were conducted in English.

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EXPERTISE

Use of the services offered under ICC's Expertise Rules (proposal of experts, appointment of experts and administration of expertise proceedings) increased considerably in 2010. The number of new cases filed was 29, almost twice as many as in 2009. In 17 cases the ICC was asked to propose an expert, in 7 cases to appoint an expert, and in the remaining 5 cases to administer the expertise proceedings. 10 of the requests for the proposal of an expert were made by arbitral tribunals acting under the ICC Rules of Arbitration; in such cases, the proposal is made free of charge.

A total of 70 parties of 31 nationalities were involved in these cases (Algeria, Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, Bulgaria, China (including Hong Kong), Colombia, Croatia, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan and the United Arab Emirates). Slightly more than 60% of the parties were from Europe, 22% from Asia, 7% from the Americas and 7% from Africa. The parties included 3 states and 1 state-owned company. 4 of the requests filed in 2010 involved multiple parties, with one involving 10 parties including several national affiliates of a multinational group.

The experts proposed or appointed were of 14 nationalities (Argentina, Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Mauritius, Mexico, Poland, Russian, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom, USA). In 20 cases they were required to provide technical expertise, in 5 cases financial expertise, in 2 cases legal expertise, and in the remaining 2 cases a combination of technical and legal expertise. The matters on which expert opinions were required related to several areas of the economy, including construction and engineering, energy, industrial equipment , pharmaceuticals, transport, the food industry, and general trade and distribution. All but 3 of the cases were conducted in English; 2 were conducted in German and 1 in Greek. 4 of the English cases also called for knowledge of another language, namely Polish, Romanian, Russian and Spanish.

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DOCDEX

In 2010, 6 new cases were filed under ICC's DOCDEX Rules. DOCDEX is a rapid procedure, conducted entirely in writing, in which a panel of three independent experts decide on a dispute relating to a letter of credit, bank-to-bank reimbursement, collection or guarantee. The amounts in dispute in cases commenced in 2010 ranged from US$ 350,000 to over US$ 13 million, and averaged US$ 4.2 million.

The parties in the 2010 cases came from 12 different countries: Algeria, Belgium, China (Hong Kong), Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, India, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine and the United Kingdom. The experts appointed to decide on their cases came from: Australia, Bahrain, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Lebanon, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapore and the USA.

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DISPUTE BOARDS

The ICC offers a set of rules for establishing and operating dispute boards and proposes three distinct services in connection with the application of those rules. They are the appointment of dispute board members, the resolution of challenges against dispute board members and the review of decisions issued by the dispute board. These are optional services; parties who do not need such assistance are free to use the ICC Dispute Board Rules without recourse to the ICC.

In 2010, the ICC received one request under its Dispute Board Rules. It was for the appointment of a dispute adjudication board (DAB) member for the performance of a construction contract between parties from Trinidad and Tobago and Germany. As permanent dispute resolution bodies set up to accompany long-term contracts, dispute boards are commonly used in construction contracts. In this case, which was conducted in English in Trinidad and Tobago, the ICC appointed a UK national as dispute board member. Factors taken into consideration when making this appointment were the scope of the DAB's functions, the working language and the desire expressed by one of the parties for a lawyer who practised English law.

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SERVICES IN AD HOC ARBITRATIONS

The ICC received 17 requests to appoint arbitrators in ad hoc arbitration proceedings. 8 of the requests were for appointments in proceedings conducted under the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules and the remaining 9 for appointments in other ad hoc proceedings. These requests were dealt with under the Rules of ICC as Appointing Authority in UNCITRAL or Other Ad Hoc Arbitration Proceedings. Those Rules also offer parties the possibility of requesting the ICC to provide additional services. In 2010, parties availed themselves of this possibility in one case, where the ICC was asked to administer the costs of an ad hoc arbitration conducted under the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules.

Of the 18 cases filed under the ICC's Appointing Authority Rules, 8 involved states or parastatal entities, and in one of the remaining cases one of the parties was an intergovernmental organization. Parties from a total of 18 different countries in all regions of the world were involved in these cases. 6 of the cases were domestic disputes involving parties from the same country.

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