UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration
Many national arbitration laws are based on the model law developed by the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL).
To encourage uniform interpretation of the Model Law, UNCITRAL tracks and shares decisions interpreting the Model Law as part of a series of reports called Case Law on UNCITRAL Texts (CLOUT). Each report provides abstracts (short summaries) for roughly a dozen decisions interpreting the Model Law or other UNCITRAL drafted texts. Each decision is assigned its own unique CLOUT number for identification.
The CLOUT reports serve as the basis for two UNCITRAL tools that are excellent starting points for locating decisions on the Model Law:
- UNCITRAL Model Law Digest (2012)An almost 250 page article-by-article analysis of decisions interpreting the Model Law. The text of each Model Law article is followed by a summary of how it has been interpreted, with copious citations to the relevant decisions. Citations include the decision's CLOUT number and information on where to find any available free versions and English translations.
- UNCITRAL CLOUT Database- Filtered to Model Law DecisionsThe CLOUT database searches decisions abstracted in UNCITRAL's CLOUT reports. The link above filters to only those cases interpreting the Model Law (not other UNCITRAL texts.) Use the side bar to filter results further by article, country, or date. Use the search bar to search by CLOUT number or to search abstracts by keyword. For each decision, UNCITRAL links to the report including the abstract of the decision and to any available full-text versions of the decision.
Before the digest, UNCITRAL also produced an earlier, more basic thesaurus and index. The digest is more current and provides more detailed information on where to locate the cited decisions. However, the thesaurus and index can still be accessed in PDF form on the UNCITRAL website:
- UNCITRAL- Index for Model Law (2003)Lists decisions by thesaurus topic, with associated CLOUT number. Split into 3 parts organized by topic, with a 4th part organized by jurisdiction and date.
National Arbitration Laws
As with all foreign laws, there is no guarantee that national arbitration laws will be available online or in English. However, because of arbitration laws' importance to international dispute resolution, there are some active efforts to translate and share them.
The easiest starting points for gathering arbitration laws online and in English are:
- Kluwer ArbitrationClick Jurisdiction and then the country name to view any available national arbitration laws.
- International Handbook on Commercial ArbitrationCall Number: Main Stacks K2400 .I594Collection of national arbitration laws, available on Kluwer and in print.
- WIPO Lex- Alternative Dispute ResolutionThe UN's World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has created the WIPO Lex system to provide online and translated versions of laws relevant to international IP disputes, including a large collection of national arbitration laws, many with English translations.
- ASIL's International Commercial Arbitration Guide- National Arbitration StatutesASIL's guide to international commercial arbitration includes links to national arbitration statutes (in English if possible) from a variety of official and unofficial websites.
For a more comprehensive guide to arbitration laws both online and in print, see:
- Foreign Law Guide- Arbitration & Mediation byCall Number: 1st Floor/Reference K38 .R49 1989The Foreign Law Guide provides country-by-country information on arbitration laws, including links to any versions available free online or in subscription databases and citations to print versions.
Some print sources compile arbitration laws (and English translations of arbitration laws) that are not available online:
- National Arbitration LawsCall Number: Main Stacks K2400 .S6334 2010Publication Date: Loukas Mistelis, Laurence Shore, general editors ; Hans Smit, founding editor
International Commercial Arbitration by Call Number: Main stacks K2400 .I59 1974
