The Uncertain Future of ICSID in Latin America

Ignacio Antonio Vincentelli

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to research the historical interaction of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) and Latin America, in an effort to suggest that the recent ICSID-unfriendly measures taken by some Latin American countries might not be an aberrational phenomenon in the region. If, moved by the engine of ideology, the rest of Latin America follows the example of Bolivia (the most radical of the ICSID-hostile countries) and denounces the Washington Convention, instead creating a new forum to resolve FDI disputes, at the regional level (as was recently proposed), the future of ICSID in Latin American becomes uncertain.