Georgetown Law
Georgetown Law Library

International Investment Law Research Guide

This guide features resources on international investment law, in general, and investor-state arbitration, in particular.

Arbitral Awards & Court Decisions

Brief Overview

Confidentiality provisions in investment treaties, such as Article 48(5) of the ICSID Convention, preclude public disclosure of arbitral decisions and awards, unless all parties to the arbitration consent.  Decisions and awards that have been publicly disclosed may be accessed through multiple sources. 

For arbitrations administered by ICSID, the free ICSID Case Law Database is the most comprehensive source.  For arbitrations administered by other arbitral institutions and ad hoc arbitrations, consult the Electronic Sources and Print Sources described on the following pages.  Note that these sources are selective, not comprehensive, in their coverage.

If you aren't seeking a specific award or decision and want to search by subject matter, or if you want to determine if subsequent arbitral panels have cited a prior award, the analytical tools offered by the subscription-based platforms Just Mundi and the Investor-State Law Guide are the best options.

Court decisions concerning the recognition and enforcement of arbitral awards issued in investor-state disputes may be accessed via the following electronic resources:  italaw, Kluwer Arbitration, Transnational Dispute Management, and Westlaw.  Coverage on all of these platforms is selective, not comprehensive.  In addition, several Print Sources also publish court decisions or excerpts therefrom. 

If you can't find the court decision you are seeking on an arbitration-focused platform, you may be able to locate it elsewhere.  For guidance on locating court decisions issued in jurisdictions outside the U.S., see the Foreign Case Law section of the Georgetown Law Library's Foreign and Comparative Law Research Guide. 

Bear in mind that decisions issued by courts in non-English speaking jurisdictions are rarely available in English translation.  if you are unable to read the court's decision in its original language, a summary of the decision published in a news source or a secondary source may be the best option.