The Permanent Court of Arbitration
The Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) was established by the Convention for the Pacific Settlement of International Disputes, concluded at The Hague in 1899 during the first Hague Peace Conference. The most concrete achievement of the Conference was the establishment of the PCA: the first global mechanism for the settlement of inter-state disputes. The 1899 Convention, which provided the legal basis for the PCA, was revised at the second Hague Peace Conference in 1907.
Despite its name, the PCA is neither permanent nor a proper Court. Rather than a permanent bench, made of judges which have not been selected by the parties, and who apply pre-determined rules of procedure, the PCA provides states with a roster of potential arbitrators to form an ad hoc arbitral tribunal, and the logistical support for it, by way of the only component of the PCA which is really permanent, its secretariat, known as the International Bureau.
In 1937 the states parties to the 1907 Convention agreed that the International Bureau of the PCA, which acts as the Court's Registry, should offer its services to other conciliation bodies. Later, the International Bureau was given the authority to make its services available in disputes between parties, only one of which is a state, while the Secretary General of the PCA was conferred with a dispute resolution role in the appointment of an arbitrator in any arbitration proceedings conducted under the Rules on International Commercial Arbitration adopted by the UN Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL).
Ireland acceded to the 1907 Hague Convention in 2002. As a party to the Convention, Ireland may designate up to four persons “of known competency in questions of international law”, to act as “Members of the Court”. Parties to a dispute resolution may, but are not required to select arbitrators or other adjudicators from among them. In addition to their role as arbitrators, Members of the Court, acting as “national groups” are entitled to nominate candidates for election to both the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court. Ireland has nominated, as members to the Permanent Court of Arbitration's Panel of Arbitrators, Mr Rory Brady SC, Attorney General, Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns, Ms Justice Fidelma Macken and Mr Francis Mahon Hayes. Professor Yvonne Scannel has been appointed to the Permanent Court of Arbitration's Environmental Panel.
Ireland has used the PCA as a Secretariat in its arbitral disputes with the United Kingdom in relation to the operation of the Mixed Oxide (‘MOX') reprocessing plant at Sellafield under the Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North East Atlantic (‘OSPAR') Convention and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (‘UNCLOS').
To access the Convention for the Pacific Settlement of International Disputes, as published in the Irish Treaty Series (no.1/2002), [link to pdf file Pacific Settlement of Disputes 200201].
Click this link to access the website of the Permanent Court of Arbitration.
Click this link to access proceedings/the judgment in the MOX Case. (PDF 545kb)
