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International Arbitration Research

Introduction

This is a guide to international arbitration research at the Harvard Law School Library.  It begins with information about using the Harvard Library catalog, HOLLIS, to find materials.  Next, it describes the subscription databases that are useful for arbitration research to which the law library subscribes.  It concludes with lists of selected items for the following types of materials:

  • Secondary sources: books and treatises
  • Secondary sources: journals
  • Primary sources: arbitration treaties
  • Primary sources: arbitration rules
  • Primary sources: arbitration awards

If you have questions or comments about this guide, please contact the guide author, Jennifer Allison, using the contact information at the top of the page.  If you are a Harvard Law School affiliate, and you need assistance with arbitration research, you are welcome to get in touch with the library's Research Services Team.  Our contact information is available at https://asklib.law.harvard.edu/index.php.

Using the Harvard Library Catalog, HOLLIS, for Arbitration Research

Access to all sources listed in this guide is available through the HOLLIS library catalog at https://hollis.harvard.edu, which you can use to search for books, journal articles, and more. 

After doing a search, you can limit the results by date, resource type, library location, and more using the options on the right side of the search results screen.

 

Item Record Details

Each item record in HOLLIS contains the following information, in this order:

  1. Options to email, link to, and export the record.
  2. Information about the item: title, author, publisher, publication date, subjects covered, and more.
  3. Holdings information, including location(s) of physical item(s) and links to available online versions.
  4. Shelf view: this allows you to browse a virtual shelf of all items (including those in our offsite storage) to find similar titles.

 

Searching HOLLIS

HOLLIS features several advanced search fields, including author, title, keyword, form/genre, ISBN, and more.

An especially effective way to search for books in HOLLIS is to use Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH).  These are created by the Library of Congress to comprise a controlled vocabulary that catalogers can use to indicate the subject(s) of a work.  These searches are especially effective when you are searching for materials about a certain subject in multiple languages.

Listed below are several pre-populated HOLLIS searches that may be relevant to your research on international arbitration, including some searches of the "Subject Heading" field.  Click a link to view its search results in HOLLIS.  Note, however, that most of these searches are very broad.  You will likely want to limit the search results by date, additional keywords, or other options.

 

Browsing Materials in HOLLIS by Library of Congress Call Number

Books in our library are organized on the shelves by subject.  We use the Library of Congress Call Number System to accomplish this. 

Under this system, all books that are primarily about law have a call number that starts with the letter "K."  If the book is primarily about international arbitration, then its call number will begin with "K2400."

In HOLLIS, you can browse books by call number.  Click the link below to browse the K2400 books in HOLLIS.

HOLLIS call number browse: K2400​

 

Using HOLLIS to Find Papers on Arbitration Written by HLS LLM and SJD Students

To view a list of papers on the topic of arbitration in the library's collection written by HLS LLM and SJD students, click the link below to run the appropriate search in HOLLIS:

Title = "Harvard Law School Thesis" AND Keywords anywhere = "arbitration"

Subscription Databases for Arbitration Research

This guide refers to several of the Harvard Law Library's subscription databases that are helpful for arbitration research. Below is a list of them, organized alphabetically. For each database, a link to its HOLLIS record, which include a link to its Harvard-specific URL, is provided, along with a brief description of its content.

Secondary Sources for Arbitration Research: Books/Treatises

Below are selected secondary sources that discuss international arbitration in general. They may provide a good basic overview for your research.

Secondary Sources for Arbitration Research: Journals

Primary Sources: Arbitration Rules

Print Sources


Electronic Sources

Primary Sources: Arbitration Awards and Other Proceeding Documents

Arbitration awards and documents related to arbitration proceedings can be notoriously difficult to find.  Below is a list of options you can try.  To suggest other sources that are not listed below, please contact the author of this guide (jallison@law.harvard.edu)