Study On Sovereign Debt Restructuring In ICSID Arbitration

Since the outbreak of Argentina's 2001 sovereign default,the international community is highly concerned about the issue of sovereign debt restructuring.In order to deal with global financial crisis potentially caused by sovereign default crisis,nations and international organizations have been making a lot of effort on sovereign debt restructuring.Among others,proposal of establishing "Sovereign Debt Restructuring Mechanism" by IMF and inclusion of "Collective Action Clauses" into sovereign bond contracts by countries are two representative examples.On 4th August 2011,an unprecedented award issued by a ICSID arbitral tribunal pulls sovereign debt restructuring into the area of international arbitration.Faced with arbitration claims put forward by Italian bond holders against Argentina's sovereign debt restructuring measures,ICSID arbitral tribunals ruled in favor of its jurisdiction over 3 separate arbitration cases.This leads to heated discussion on the feasibility of filing sovereign debt restructuring dispute with ICSID arbitration,which includes a series of legal issues,such as how to deal with arbitration claims raised simultaneously by a huge amount of claimants,and whether sovereign bonds can be defined as "investment".Starting from the perspective of the development of issues relating to sovereign debt restructuring in the area of ICSID arbitration,this article deeply explores the legal analyses made by ICSID arbitral tribunal about sovereign debt restricting and examines the bilateral investment treaties signed by China,expecting to provide China with some reference when facing sovereign debt restructuring issues in the area of ICSID arbitration.