INTRODUCTION

Revision involves a substantive alteration of the original award on the basis of newly discovered facts that were unknown when the award was rendered. The Convention's text is modelled on the International Court of Justice's Statute (Art. 61). Revision is not widely used in international adjudication. Other documents regulating international arbitration rarely provide for it. In practice though, international tribunals may have an inherent power to reopen proceedings in order to revise awards, notwithstanding the absence of an express provision in their governing instruments.

The drafts leading to the Convention all contained provisions for the revision of awards in terms similar to what eventually became Art. 51 (History, Vol. I, pp. 222–230). The desirability of a procedure for revision was hardly ever challenged in principle (but see History, Vol. II, pp. 422/3). The discussion concerned mainly the time limits for making a request (see para. 26 infra) and the modalities of a stay of enforcement once a request has been made (see para. 34 infra).

Art. 51 is the second of three Articles in Section 5 of Chapter IV dealing with “Interpretation, Revision and Annulment of the Award”. Like Art. 50 (Interpretation), Art. 51 provides that any revision shall be made, if possible, by the same tribunal that rendered the award. By contrast, annulment under Art. 52 is always carried out by a separate ad hoc committee.