Developing countries depend heavily on foreign private capital to finance development. Such capital flows are sensitive to legal and political conditions in developing countries. The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes is an autonomous institution founded in 1966 to promote increased flows of international investment by providing facilities for the conciliation and arbitration of disputes between governments and foreign investors. ICSID also provides advice, carries out research, and produces publications in the area of foreign investment law. Its publications include a semiannual law journal, ICSD Review-Foreign Investment Law Journal, and multivolume collections of Investment Laws of the World and Investment Treaties . As of September 2002, ICSID had 136 member countries, and as of December 2002 it had tried 68 cases; 45 other cases were pending. Disputes have dealt with investments in agriculture, banking, construction, energy, health, industry, mining, and tourism.
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