INTRODUCTION

Provision for the power of an international court or tribunal to take evidence is a standard feature in instruments governing international adjudication. Comparable clauses may be found in the Statute of the International Court of Justice (Arts. 49, 50 and 51), in the 1958 International Law Commission's Model Rules on Arbitral Procedure (Arts. 17(2), 18), in the 1993 Permanent Court of Arbitration's Optional Rules for Arbitrating Disputes between Two States and in the 1993 Permanent Court of Arbitration's Optional Rules for Arbitrating Disputes between Two Parties Only One of Which Is a State (Arts. 24(2)(3) and 25(6)). Moreover, comparable clauses exist in the 1998 International Chamber of Commerce Rules of Arbitration (Art. 20), in the 1976 UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules (Arts. 16(2)(3), 24(2)(3), 25, 27) and in the 1985 UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration (Arts. 24, 26).

The Preliminary Draft of the ICSID Convention did not have a provision on the tribunal's power to summon evidence (History, Vol. I, p. 196). It was inserted in the First Draft upon the suggestion of the delegate from the Central African Republic and remained almost unchanged (History, Vol. II, pp. 244, 269, 572, 805) (but see para. 68 infra). There was some suggestion to delete the Article and to relegate its contents to the Arbitration Rules (at p. 806).