Investment Mediation Insights II: Mediating from the Parties’ perspectives

ICSID's Investment Mediation Insights webinar, which debuted in 2021, returns in 2025 with a new installment of practical insights into the growing field of mediation between States and investors. In the session “Mediating from the Parties’ perspectives”, representatives for States and investors shared their insights on investment mediation: What are factors States have considered when deciding to mediate? When to recommend mediation to the client? In which settings have States and investors chosen to mediate? What aspects need to be put in place to set the stage for mediation – on the State side and on the investor side? How does the role of party representative differ in mediation from arbitration? Links shared during the session: • ICSID Mediation Rules https://icsid.worldbank.org/rules-reg... • How to File a Request for Mediation at ICSID https://icsid.worldbank.org/procedure... • ICSID’s Background Paper on Investment Mediation https://icsid.worldbank.org/resources... • ICSID’s Overview of Investment Treaty Clauses on Mediation https://icsid.worldbank.org/resources... • UNCITRAL - International Commercial Mediation https://uncitral.un.org/en/texts/medi... • UNCITRAL - Investor-State Dispute Settlement https://uncitral.un.org/en/texts/isds Speakers: Amal Bouchenaki: Amal is a partner in the international arbitration group of Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer. She is based in New York and has worked on arbitration and other formats of investor-state dispute resolution mechanisms in multiple jurisdictions, representing both states and investors in the Asia Pacific, MENA, and the Americas. Eric Franco: Eric Franco has over 20 years of experience as a lawyer, international arbitrator, member of dispute boards, mediator and professor. He has worked on infrastructure, engineering, and construction projects, as well as disputes, in Latin America, Europe, and Asia. He is the Managing Partner at Legal Delta. Eric was an in-house lawyer at large international companies in the power, mining, infrastructure, engineering, and construction sectors for over 16 years. His previous position was Global Expert in Contracts and Disputes at Engie Group and General Counsel at Engie Peru. He holds leadership positions in several academic organizations and is a professor of conflict prevention and resolution, construction law and infrastructure law. Moderator: Frauke Nitschke: Frauke is a Senior Legal Counsel at ICSID and serves as the team lead for one of the Centre’s case management teams. Frauke further leads ICSID’s investor-State mediation activities, including the development of the ICSID Mediation Rules, amendments to ICSID’s conciliation frameworks, and ICSID’s Background Paper on Investment Mediation. Frauke has developed and conducted investor-State capacity-building workshops and trainings for mediators and government officials, and led the Centre’s contributions on mediation to the United Nations Commission on Trade and Law (UNCITRAL) Working Group III on investor-State dispute settlement reform. She is an accredited mediator and admitted to practice law in New York and Washington, D.C., and holds law degrees from the Freie Universität Berlin and Georgetown University Law Center (LL.M.), and a Master’s degree in Organizational Psychology from the FernUniversität Hagen.