Frequently Asked Questions

All public information concerning PCA cases is available on the Court’s website under Cases.

Press releases regarding cases in which the PCA has been authorized to release public information are published on the Court’s website under News, and shared through its mailing list and social media channels.

The PCA is only able to provide information that has been officially made publicly available on its website under Cases. No further details have been authorized for public dissemination; however, the Court encourages regular consultation of its website, where updates and publicly available materials are published.

No. The PCA is an intergovernmental organization devoted chiefly to the administration of international dispute resolution proceedings. The PCA’s involvement in administering such proceedings is predicated upon the consent of the parties to resolve a particular dispute through the dispute resolution procedures the PCA offers, such as arbitration, conciliation, and fact-finding procedures.

The PCA is required to remain neutral and does not offer legal advice or assistance to parties in these proceedings. Parties should instead seek advice and assistance from qualified legal professionals.

Further information on the mandate and function of the PCA is available in the About Us section of the Court’s website.

The PCA does not maintain a fixed list from which arbitrators must be appointed. When appointing an arbitrator, the PCA selects the individual it considers most suitable for the case, in accordance with the parties’ agreement and the applicable arbitration rules. Similarly, parties to PCA-administered arbitrations are not required to choose arbitrators from any given list.

Nonetheless, the International Bureau of the PCA does maintain an official list of potential arbitrators known as the “Members of the Court” of the PCA. Pursuant to the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907, each PCA Contracting Party may designate a maximum of four persons, “of known competency in questions of international law, of the highest moral reputation, and disposed to accept the duties of arbitrator.”

An up-to-date list of Members of the Court is published each year in the PCA’s Annual Report and on the PCA’s website.

Pursuant to the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907, each Contracting Party may designate a maximum of four persons as Members of the Court, “of known competency in questions of international law, of the highest moral reputation, and disposed to accept the duties of arbitrator.” Members of the Court are appointed for six years, and their appointments may be renewed. An up-to-date list of the Members of the Court is published each year in the PCA’s Annual Report and on the PCA’s website. Individuals should approach their home governments regarding designation as Members of the Court.

Individuals interested in serving as Members of the Court should approach their home governments regarding their potential designation.

Membership of the PCA is effected through accession to either or both of the Court’s Founding Conventions, the 1899 Hague Convention and the 1907 Hague Convention. This can be accomplished by delivering an Act of Accession to either or both Conventions, duly signed by the competent authority, to the Head of the Treaties Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, which acts as the depository of the Conventions. All Member States of the United Nations are ipso facto eligible for membership at the PCA. Membership takes effect immediately upon the receipt of the Act of Accession to the 1899 Hague Convention, or 60 days after the Act of Accession to the 1907 Hague Convention is received by the depository.

Yes. The PCA provides full registry services to arbitral tribunals at locations around the world. In addition to its headquarters at the Peace Palace in The Hague, the PCA also has international offices in Buenos Aires, Ha Noi, Mauritius, Singapore and Vienna. In addition, the PCA also has access to facilities around the world pursuant to its Host Country Agreements with Contracting Parties and cooperation agreements with other institutions. All of these facilities are available free of charge to tribunals in PCA-administered proceedings. More information can be found on the PCA Hearing Facilities webpage.

Yes. The PCA can administer an arbitration in any language agreed by the parties to the case. The languages of the proceedings in recent cases have included Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.

The PCA provides registry services in connection with inter-State disputes, investor-State disputes, and other disputes involving various combinations of States, State-controlled entities, or intergovernmental organizations.

The PCA has administered a variety of high-profile, complex cases involving different subject matters, such as land and maritime delimitation, transboundary water resources, environmental protection, climate change, international trade, and foreign investment protection. The PCA is also equipped to administer novel cases, such as those concerning complex international financial transactions, outer space, and mass claims.

There are several possible combinations of parties to arbitration administered by the PCA:

• disputes between two States;
• disputes between two parties, only one of which is a State;
• disputes between an International Organization and States;
• disputes between an International Organization and Private Parties; and
• disputes between two private parties (subject to certain caveats).

The PCA is an intergovernmental organization devoted chiefly to the administration of international dispute resolution proceedings involving at least one State, State-controlled entity, or intergovernmental organization. As such, the PCA does not seek to provide full administrative services in disputes exclusively between private parties. However, the PCA Secretary-General will designate appointing authorities in cases between private parties under the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules (in accordance with the role he is given under those rules). The PCA Secretary-General will also act directly as appointing authority in UNCITRAL Rules cases or other cases where the parties so agree.

With respect to the PCA’s own procedural rules, any parties can agree to the PCA’s Arbitration Rules, but where there is no State, State-controlled entity, or intergovernmental organization, the Secretary-General may limit the administrative support provided by the PCA to the appointing authority function. An exception among the PCA’s procedural rules is that of the PCA Optional Rules for Disputes Relating to Natural Resources and/or the Environment which do not exclude use by two private parties. They were drafted in this manner in view of the strong public interest in efficiently resolving any disputes relating to the environment. Many contracts relating to emissions trading in implementation of clean development mechanisms and referring disputes for resolution under those rules have been entered into by various combinations of private and public entities, including contracts between two private parties.

PCA hearings are often private and confidential, although public hearings are held from time to time, depending on the rules governing the arbitration. The recordings of some past public hearings are also available to be viewed on the PCA website, including for example the hearings in the following cases:

• Abyei Arbitration (The Government of Sudan / The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army) (2009)
• Bilcon of Delaware et al v. Government of Canada (2013)
• Timor Sea Conciliation (Timor-Leste v. Australia) (2016)
• Professor Christian Doutremepuich & Antoine Doutremepuich v. Republic of Mauritius (2019)
• Dispute Concerning Coastal State Rights in the Black Sea, Sea of Azov, and Kerch Strait (Ukraine v. the Russian Federation) (2019)
• The ‘Enrica Lexie’ Incident (Italy v. India) (2019)
• The Renco Group, Inc. v. The Republic of Peru (2020)

The level of confidentiality in PCA proceedings may be prescribed by the rules governing the arbitration or may be subsequently agreed between the parties and the tribunal. These rules usually determine which documents are made public, as well as the timing of such disclosures.

The costs of arbitration vary from case to case. To promote maximum flexibility in each case, the PCA assists the parties and tribunal in finding a fee arrangement that is most appropriate for the case.

The Schedule of Fees & Costs for the PCA’s services can be found on its website.

Unlike the ICJ, the PCA does not have a bench of permanent judges. Each PCA case is handled by a panel of arbitrators or conciliators specially appointed to hear that matter. While the ICJ is a judicial organ handling inter-State cases, the PCA is able to administer a great variety of cases between States, State-controlled entities, intergovernmental organizations, and private entities.

The PCA is an independent intergovernmental organization and not an organ of the United Nations (UN), as is the case of the ICJ. Since 1993, the PCA participates in the sessions and the work of the UN General Assembly in the capacity of observer. Notably, many PCA Contracting Parties are UN Member States.

On 3 August 2023, the UN General Assembly adopted, via consensus, Resolution 77/322 on the commemoration of the 125th anniversary of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (“PCA”). The Resolution was initiated and pursued by a core group of PCA Contracting Parties—the Philippines, Australia, Egypt, Guatemala, Hungary, and Thailand—and co-sponsored by 121 UN Member States, including twenty-six non-Contracting Parties to the PCA. The Resolution is indicative of the trust and support placed by the Contracting Parties and the UN Member States in the PCA, highlighting the important contributions of the PCA to international order, international law at large, and to dispute resolution, in particular.

The Resolution encourages UN Member States to make use of the PCA’s services in arbitration, conciliation, mediation, commissions of inquiry and other peaceful means of dispute resolution and it further encourages UN Member states that have not yet done so to accede to the Conventions for the Pacific Settlement of International Disputes of 1899 and 1907.

Information on the PCA’s internship/fellowship program and any current vacancies can be found on the Employment page of the Court’s website, which presents complete information about the Program/Vacancy requirements and application procedures.

Unfortunately, the PCA is not in a position to provide free hard copies of its publications or other materials. The PCA does however strive to make its work accessible, and many of its resources are available online through the PCA’s website, where the Court’s Annual Reports and other digital materials can be accessed.

Unfortunately, the PCA is unable to provide general research assistance on arbitration beyond what is provided on the PCA’s website.