Art. 18 is the first of seven Articles in the Convention's Section on Status, Immunities and Privileges. For other international institutions, the issues covered by this Section are often dealt with in separate treaties. These treaties are multilateral conventions on privileges and immunities as well as bilateral headquarters agreements. None of these treaties cover the Centre. The Centre is not a specialized agency in the sense of Art. 57 of the United Nations Charter. Therefore, the 1947 Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the Specialized Agencies is not applicable to it. Neither is there a headquarters agreement between ICSID and the United States. Since the Centre has separate international legal personality, the treaties covering the status, immunities and privileges of the World Bank do not apply to it. It follows that Arts. 18–24 of the ICSID Convention are the only treaty provisions covering the status, immunities and privileges of the Centre.

A clause providing for legal personality was contained in all drafts to the Convention (History, Vol. I, p. 90). This clause was not uncontested and led to some debate (History, Vol. II, pp. 55, 101, 113, 246, 248/9, 312/3, 670, 697, 724). Mr. Broches explained that the clause was designed to distinguish the Centre from the World Bank (at pp. 312, 380).