INTRODUCTION

Art. 48 deals with a number of diverse matters: majority decisions, the form of the award, the requirement that the award be exhaustive and reasoned, the possibility of individual opinions and restrictions on the award's publication. Art. 48 is the first of two Articles in the Convention's Chapter IV, Section 4, entitled “The Award”. Paras. (2) to (5) of Art. 48, by their own terms, address certain aspects of the award. By contrast, para. (1) has a wider application. It addresses questions to be decided by the tribunal in general. It is not restricted to questions decided in awards but also applies to the numerous preliminary and procedural questions that arise before the tribunal (see para. 4 infra). Therefore, it would have been more logical to incorporate the provision of Art. 48(1) into the Section on “Powers and Functions of the Tribunal”.

Art. 48 applies not only to awards and decisions of the original tribunal. Art. 52(4) extends its application to proceedings before an ad hoc committee that deals with a request for annulment. It is also applicable to proceedings before a new tribunal to which the dispute is submitted in accordance with Art. 52(6) after the original award's annulment.