---
title: "ICSID Arbitration"
url: "https://legal.ge/en/service/international-law-en/icsid-arbitration-en"
field: "International Law"
description: "ICSID disputes begin with national qualification: investment, investor, inviolability and compensation; explained by Legal.ge."
reviewed: "2026-02-15"
updated: "2026-10-14"
publisher: "legal.ge"
---

# ICSID Arbitration

> Source: legal.ge, https://legal.ge/en/service/international-law-en/icsid-arbitration-en

## The National-Law Layer of Investment Disputes

International investment arbitration, including the ICSID format, is a rare and demanding process whose first qualifying filter is often national law. Before a dispute reaches an international tribunal, it must be established whether the object in dispute is an investment and whether the claimant is an investor within the meaning of the Georgian law on the promotion and guarantees of investment activity. It is precisely this law that shapes the concepts and guarantees forming the initial grid of the tribunal's analysis: the definitions of investment and investor, the legal regime of the foreign investor, the inviolability of investment and the conditions of compensation. The treaty layer stands on the second level of that sequence.

The full text is available on legal.ge after signing in: https://legal.ge/en/service/international-law-en/icsid-arbitration-en

### What is the concept of investment?

Any property or intellectual value or right invested for profit in entrepreneurial activity — from monetary funds to concessions.

### Who may invoke an international tribunal?

An investor — a natural or legal person or international organisation, including one qualifying as a foreign investor.

### What is the exception to inviolability?

Deprivation — only in cases established by law, by court decision or in urgent necessity, with appropriate compensation.

### How freely may compensation be taken out?

A foreign investor converts it at the market rate and transfers it abroad freely and without hindrance.