Much More than a Footnote (or Three): Frank C. Hendryx and an Untold Story of Petroleum Concessions and the Genesis of ICSID

En ce temps s’esmut contens entre les gros et les menus … car les menus vouloient faire à leure entente, et le gros ne le pouoient souffrir. —Jean Froissart, Chroniques In mid-1960, the Chairman of the Committee on the Unification of Private Law of the Section of International and Comparative Law of the American Bar Association (‘ABA’), Clifford Hynning, enquired whether the World Bank might consider playing a role in the international protection of the rights of foreign investors through the establishment of a new framework for the international arbitration of investment disputes.1 The idea was well received, so much so that by March 1965, the President of the World Bank was signing the Convention on the Settlement of Investment Disputes Between States and Nationals of Other States (ie the ICSID – International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes – Convention), prior to relaying it to member states for their consideration (with a view to ratification) ‘as an important and a needed contribution to the cause of economic development’.2