The National committees of icc involve the leading companies and business associations more than 120 countries in the world. Can icc provide legal advice?

No, ICC cannot provide any legal advice, including advice as to how to draft a dispute resolution clause or what is the best dispute resolution technique to choose.

However, ICC can provide parties with information on the use of the various dispute resolution mechanisms and application of the various ICC Rules depending on their circumstances.

1. 2. The ICC International Court of Arbitration, commonly known simply as the “the Court”, comprises more than 100 members from about 90 countries. The Court is one of the world's most experienced and renowned international arbitration institutions. Working closely with its Secretariat, the Court’s primary role is to administer ICC Arbitrations. It performs the functions entrusted to it under the ICC Rules of Arbitration and continually strives to assist parties and arbitrators to overcome any procedural obstacles that arise.

In performing its functions, the Court is mindful of its duty to make every effort to ensure that awards are enforceable at law.

The functions of the Court:

The Court performs the functions entrusted to it under the ICC Rules of Arbitration and continually strives to assist parties and arbitrators to overcome any procedural obstacles that arise. In performing its functions, the Court is mindful of its duty to make every effort to ensure that awards are enforceable at law.

Importantly, the Court is not a court in the judicial sense of the term. It does not itself resolve disputes or decide who wins or who loses an arbitration. It does not award damages or even costs. Those are all functions reserved for independent arbitral tribunals appointed in accordance with the Rules.

The Court's specific functions under the Rules include:

• Fixing the place of arbitration

• Assessing whether there is a prima facie ICC Arbitration agreement

• Taking certain necessary decisions in complex multi-party or multi-contract arbitrations

• Confirming, appointing and replacing arbitrators

• Deciding on any challenges filed against arbitrators

• Monitoring the arbitral process from the filing of the request for arbitration to the notification of the final award to ensure that it proceeds in accordance with the Rules and with the required commitment to diligence and efficiency

• Scrutinizing and approving all arbitral awards, in the interests of improving their quality and enforceability

• Setting, managing and, if necessary, adjusting costs of the arbitration, including the ICC administrative expenses and the arbitrators’ fees and expenses

• Overseeing emergency arbitrator proceedings

The Court’s Secretariat comprises a permanent staff of more than 80 lawyers and support personnel.

Headed by a Secretary General, it assists the Court in performing its functions as well as performing numerous functions of its own in accordance with the Rules and the Court’s practices.

The Court and Secretariat’s marketing activities are supported by marketing officers covering North America, Asia and the Pacific, Eastern Mediterranean, the Middle East and Africa, Latin America and the United Kingdom.

The Court’s official working languages are English and French.

In recent years, however, the Court has begun to hold special Court sessions for the scrutiny of arbitral awards in German and Spanish, when the awards themselves are in one of those languages.

The Secretariat’s official working languages are also English and French, but Secretariat personnel speak approximately 25 languages. The Court’s official written correspondence is also available for arbitrations in German, Spanish and Portuguese.