Flore Poloni and Kimberley Bazelais analyse the ICC Court’s 2024 Statistics in Law.com International

The annual ICC Dispute Resolution Statistics provide crucial insights into current trends and developments in international arbitration globally. The statistics for 2024 reflect a year of consolidation rather than expansion, nonetheless marked by notable regional shifts.

In 2024, while the overall case volume slightly declined from 890 to 841 new cases, the financial stakes of the ICC’s case docket reached unprecedented heights, emphasising the enduring appeal and confidence parties have in ICC arbitration to handle high-value international disputes.

ICC Caseload Makeup

As mentioned above, a particularly striking trend in 2024 is the surge in the cases’ amounts in dispute. New cases saw an average amount of USUSD  130 million, double the 2023 average, and the aggregate sum of all pending disputes reached a staggering USUSD  354 billion, a significant leap from the previous year's USUSD  255 billion.

However, this sharp increase is likely to have been significantly inflated by a few large cases, as the median amount in dispute for new cases remained stable at approximately USD 5 million. Nonetheless, this year’s figures do reflect that parties trust the ICC to be the go-to institution for complex and financially significant arbitration cases.

At the lower range of the amounts in disputes, we note that the use of the ICC’s Expedited Procedure Provisions (EPP) remained popular with 152 new cases filed in 2024. While down from 2023’s 189, it should be borne in mind that last year’s figure was an all-time record since the introduction of the procedure, and stabilisation should be expected. The length of EPP proceedings should however be closely monitored to see whether it holds true to its promise: in 2024, only 56% were delivered within the six-month time limit (the procedure’s main appeal), compared to 65% the previous year.

The statistics still show that efficiency remained a priority for ICC arbitration. For cases which concluded in 2024 by way of a final award, the average duration of proceedings was 26 months, with a median duration of 22 months. This represents an improvement from 2023, when the average duration was 27 months and the median duration was 25 months. Proceedings considered in the 2024 statistics suffered less delays: 51% of draft final awards were submitted to the ICC Court for scrutiny in a timely manner, an increase from 2023 (47%) but still far from the high punctuality level five years before in 2019 (60%).

Emergency Arbitrator applications reached their lowest point since 2015, with only 17 applications (28 in 2023). Whether ICC arbitration users have moved away from emergency arbitration for good remains to be seen, although practitioners have noted a multiplication of traditional interim measures through domestic courts which may partly explain the lack of interest in the emergency arbitration procedure.

The ICC’s global reach

In 2024, parties from 136 different jurisdictions participated in ICC arbitration proceedings, a figure which is on par with 2023 (141 jurisdictions).

The biggest mover in 2024 was Latin America and the Caribbean. Rising from 346 parties out of 2 389 in 2023 (14.5%) to 511 parties out of 2 392 in 2024 (21.4%), the region showcased remarkable growth. Brazil led this increase, jumping from the sixth to the second most represented nationality worldwide after the United States.

The region’s increased appetite for ICC arbitration is also reflected in other statistics: Brazilian law was selected as the lex contractus in 44 new cases (up from 29 in 2023), helping to bring the region to 16.8% in that category, an increase from 11.4% in 2023. Similarly, the Latin America and Caribbean region was more frequently chosen when considering places of arbitration. 11 countries in the region were selected as places of arbitration in 91 cases (12.7%) compared to 10.8% in 2023, although Brazil was ousted from the top five of arbitration places by the United Arab Emirates. The geographical breakdown of arbitrator origin also echoes this trend: in 2023, the percentage of arbitrators originating from Latin America and the Caribbean had reached its lowest point in four years at 13.3%. In 2024, 17.3% of arbitrator appointments concerned individuals from the region.

Elsewhere in the world, London edged out Paris as the most frequently selected place of arbitration (13.4%) for the first time since 2021, while English law continues to reign supreme as the favourite contract-governing law. In light of the recent arbitration law reforms which have been completed (England) or undertaken (France) on each side of the Channel, arbitration stakeholders may wish to follow closely which, if any, of the two jurisdictions pulls ahead of the other in the coming few years.

Gender Diversity Efforts

The ICC Court continued its efforts to promote diversity among arbitrators. Female arbitrators constituted 28.6% of all confirmations and appointments, with a noteworthy, near-parity of 46% of ICC Court appointments. The number of total female arbitrator appointments had steadily increased to reach a record 398 in 2023 and now reaches new heights of 408 in 2024. The proportion of female appointments by parties remains however disappointing at 19%, only a marginal increase from five years prior (15% in 2019). This painstaking progress explains the low proportion of women among ICC co-arbitrators (only 20% in 2024, compared to 43% of sole arbitrators, a role often attributed by the ICC Court).

In the race to lead the diversity charge as an additional factor of institutional influence, the LCIA has made the first move by releasing its Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Guidelines in 2024. The arbitration community will be on the lookout to see what the ICC might do to position itself as the lead standard-setter in shaping an inclusive future for international arbitration.