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Arbitral Awards: Library Resources
In contrast to court opinions, arbitration submissions and awards are often confidential. This makes locating the awards much more difficult than locating court opinions. However, there are a variety of electronic databases and print reporters that publish arbitral awards—sometimes as redacted excerpts. Below is a list of selected law library resources that frequently publish international arbitral awards.
- Reports of international arbitral awards / Recueil des sentences arbitralesCall Number: JX1991 Un3Publication Date: 1948 - presentPublished by the United Nations, there are currently 33 volumes of the Reports of International Arbitral Awards (“RIAA”). Each volume contains a table of contents, index and foreword explaining the awards published in the particular volume.
The RIAA is limited to arbitral decisions between states or between states and international organizations. There are also some decisions between individuals and states in which the individual has a sponsoring state.
The awards are published in English and French (and normally both)—with footnotes stating when the translation has been done by the United Nations Secretariat. The RIAA publishes recent awards, as well as older awards (previously published elsewhere) which have become less accessible over time. There are sometimes maps published in connection with an award—such maps are only available in the print version.
The Law Library has volumes 1-29 in print. The rest are available online from the UN's website. - Collection of ICC arbitral awards / Recueil des sentences arbitrales de la CCICall Number: K2400.A47 C65Publication Date: 1974 - 2015There are six volumes of ICC Court of Arbitration cases, covering years 1974-2015. Each volume contains abstracts of awards and commentary on the Court of Arbitration cases that have been previously published in the Yearbook Commercial Arbitration and the Journal du Droit International. There are indexes to search by date (and case number) and by subject. Abstracts and commentaries are available in English and French (but not always both).
This resource is also available to the CLS community on Westlaw via the database ICC-AWARDS. It covers the years 1974-2004. - Yearbook Commercial ArbitrationCall Number: K2400.A15 Y43Publication Date: 1976 - presentStarting in 1976 and published annually, this publication provides references to new or amended foreign arbitration rules, a short description of recent ICA developments in relevant countries and, most importantly, arbitral awards and court decisions. The awards are organized by arbitral body and the court decisions are organized by the ICA convention that is relevant to the case. For ease of searching, there is a subject index for arbitral awards.
- ICSID reportsCall Number: JX1976.S1 Ic71 1993Currently an 19 volume set, the ICSID Reports publish arbitral reports (in full text when available) by tribunals or ad hoc committees based on the ICSID Convention. Volume 1 contains cases commenced between 1972 and 1981 and Volume 19 covers cases commenced between 2004 and 2016. Each volume contains a table of cases published in the particular volume, a table of cases published in all existing volumes and a digest for cases published in the particular volume. There is also a subject index at the back of each volume. Volumes 1 through 10 have cumulative subject indexes, while volumes 11 through 19 have individual subject indexes. All reports (either full-text or excerpts) are printed in English. For each report, the editors have added headings (in bold) indicating the main issues of law and a summary of the proceedings.
- World trade and arbitration materialsCall Number: K27 .O717Publication Date: 1989 - presentPublished four times per year, this journal provides the full-text of certain arbitration awards and case decisions, as well as new and pending statutes and legislation.
The Law Library has the print edition of the journal from 1993 - present. Earlier editions can be accessed online. - Mealey's international arbitration reportCall Number: K2400.A13 I57Publication Date: 1986 - presentThis print publication contains information and commentaries on awards and issues relating to international arbitration, as well as some full-text awards and other publications. The "Cases in this Issue" chart on the inside cover page of each issue indicates which full-text documents are available in the publication.
Arbitral Awards: Other Resources
Aside from the law library resources mentioned above, a few arbitral bodies provide free electronic access to their decisions and awards. Please see the below list for more information about those entities and sources.
- Case Law on UNCITRAL Texts (CLOUT)Part of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law website, this is a freely accessible database of court decisions and arbitral awards relating to United Nations Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (1958); Convention on the Limitation Period in the International Sale of Goods (New York, 1974; updated Vienna, 1980); United Nations Convention on the Carriage of Goods by Sea, 1978 (Hamburg); United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (Vienna, 1980); UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration (1985); UNCITRAL Model Law on International Credit Transfers (1992); United Nations Convention on Independent Guarantees and Stand-by Letters of Credit (New York, 1995); UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic Commerce (1996); UNCITRAL Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency (1997); United Nations Convention on the Use of Electronic Communications in International Contracts (New York, 2005)
Decisions and awards are collected by national correspondents of each state that is a party to one of the conventions listed above and/or has adopted legislation based on one of the model laws listed above. The correspondents then prepare abstracts of such decisions and awards. The abstracts are published intermittently and are made available in the six official UN languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.
Abstracts can be browsed (by date of publication) or searched by a number of subjects: legislative text and article, date, country, court, parties and keyword. - ICSID CasesICSID provides a database of pending and concluded cases to search, from the 1980's onward, with fairly extensive information about each case. Citations to decisions (if publicly available) are also provided. The database allows for searching by applicable rules, economic sector, case number, and outcome.
- UNCTADUNCTAD provides a database of information regarding arbitral awards (concluded or pending) that you can browse or search. There are a variety of facets available (parties, home country of investor, type of investment, rules etc.).
- ICC AwardsUse the "Find an Award" tool to locate where ICC awards have been published. Use "Quick Links" to browse awards by subject matter, or click "Find an Award" to search by case number.
National Arbitration Laws
Conducting research on international commercial arbitration will often require research into the arbitration laws of individual countries. Although such laws are beyond the scope of this research guide, the World Arbitration Reporter (discussed in the "Secondary Sources" tab of this guide) contains information and commentary on the arbitration laws of many countries. The American Society of International Law International Commercial Arbitration research guide contains links to many national arbitration laws.