Skip to Main Content
Berkeley Law Library logo

International Arbitration & Litigation: Awards & Decisions

This guide covers both commercial arbitration and investment arbitration (Investor-State)

How to find Arbitration Decisions

In contrast to the transparency of litigation, arbitration is a private process.  Documents relating to arbitration are not routinely published electronically due to confidentiality issues.  

Some arbitration awards do get published, however, and there are a variety of print and electronic sources.  Because no one source contains every award or decision, you might need to consult several sources.  

There are several ways to find awards using law library resources.   

1.  Search the law library catalog by keywords international commercial arbitration cases 

2.  Or search the catalog for a specific source of arbitration awards: "Yearbook Commercial Arbitration"

3.  Use an arbitration database and search for name of the case or by other identifying aspects of the case.  The same specialized arbitration databases used for finding treaties, laws, and rules usually also contain awards

Sources for Awards/Decisions

"Although published awards have no formal precedential value and are not binding on anyone other than the parties to whom the award was issued, arbit al awards constitute highly persuasive forms of authority, particularly with respect to procedural matters that are not typically discussed in judicial opinions. Thus, experienced advocates and arbitrators look to published awards for guidance concerning issues such as the interpretation of arbitral rules, the challenge of arbitrators, permissible procedures in hearings and the like." S.I. Strong, Research in International Commercial Arbitration: Special Skills, Special Sources, 29 Am. Rev. Int’l Arb. 119, 143 (2009).

Databases with Arbitration Award Collections

Jus Mundi (searchable collection of commercial arbitration and investment arbitration) (UCB only).
Kluwer Arbitration (searchable collection of commercial and investment decisions from national courts and awards. (UCB only). 

ICC Dispute Resolution Library (Int'l Chamber of Commerce)

Contains awards rendered by ICC arbitrators in commercial arbitration cases.  

Yearbook Commercial Arbitration:  Court Decisions and Arbitration Awards
UNCITRAL, CLOUT (Case Law on UNICTRAL Texts) (provides summaries of court decisions and arbitral awards involving the UNCITRAL Model Law, with citations or links to full-text sources, if available).  UNCITRAL Digests:  search tool for CISG-based and Model Law-based agreements.

CISG Database (large collection of national cases and arbitral awards related to CISG). Note: registration is now required to use this database.

  • CISG-online (all relevant CISG case law, including links to translated versions of many cases).

UNILEX on CISG & UNIDROIT Principles: International Case Law & Bibliography (cases on the CISG and UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts; search by country, date, instrument article, or issue).
ICDR Awards and Commentaries (print and online AAA Int'l Ctr. Disp. Resolution awards and explanation)
New York Convention Guide (access to cases by article or by jurisdiction).

B.  Investment Arbitration Collections, Web or Subscription Databases

  • International Investment Law Centre, Digest for finding investment arbitration awards by search, claimant, respondent, or treaty.  1974-2002 and 2010-2023.
  • ICSID Cases (browse the list or search the publicly available cases and awards; if the text is not available, there is a citation to the source).
    • Print and online ICSID Reports collection
    • Print digests for ICSID cases, 1974-2007. 
  • UNCTAD Investment Dispute Settlement Navigator (contains information about known international arbitration cases initiated by investors against States pursuant to international investment agreements (IIAs). 
  • Investment Claims (fully searchable collection of publicly available awards and decisions from international investment arbitrations, and related enforcement or review decisions from national courts; subscription database. (UCB only).
  • Investment Treaty Arbitration (a large collection of full-text awards that can be located chronologically, alphabetically by claimant or respondent, and there is a search engine).
  • Investor-State Law Guide (good for NAFTA, ICSID, and ad hoc tribunal cases; subscription database) (UCB only) Note: click "Login".
  • Investment Arbitration Reporter (IAReporter) (database offering access to all publicly-known investor-state claims, as well as coverage of many unpublished confidential awards)

Public International Arbitration, Commercial, and Investment Arbitration Sources