International Arbitration & Litigation: Awards & 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

"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).

• ICDR Awards and Commentaries (print and online AAA Int'l Ctr. Disp. Resolution awards and explanation)
• New York Arbitration Convention (court decisions by topic and by country).
• New York Convention Guide (access to cases by article or by jurisdiction).
• World Trade and Arbitration Materials 
• 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).

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 LawGuide (good for NAFTA, ICSID, and ad hoc tribunal cases; subscription database) (UCB only) Note: click "Login".
• International Arbitration Case Law (IACL) (a small collection of summaries from arbitral tribunals, international tribunals and national courts in matters of international arbitration).
• 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

• Reports of International Arbitral Awards (U.N. Collection of arbitration awards in cases between States from the late 18 c. through mid-20th c.)
• TradeLawGuide (WTO jurisprudence) (UCB only).
• Worldtradelaw.net (a great source for commentaries on WTO panel reports and arbitrations). (UCB only).
• Trans-Lex (search or browse by the Trans-Lex Principles; links to arbitral awards but these may not be the entire award).
• Transnational Dispute Management (TDM), Laws and Regulations by Country (awards, cases, laws, treaties). (UCB only).
• Westlaw "Arbitration Materials" (Covers several different bodies, like the ICC, ICSID, etc. Note: some of the content is not available to law school subscribers.). (Berkeley Law only).
• Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) (contains pending and past cases).

Law Library Catalog:

Books + Articles