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Editorial Policy, Coverage and Process

Oxford University Press applies strict and robust editorial process to all legal content created for online publication on Investment Claims. This includes: 

  • A network of reporters, reviewers, and treaty correspondents chosen for their familiarity with the law in question and their geographical placement in a particular jurisdiction
  • Peer reviewed reports by experts in the field and the Editor-in-Chief to ensure that quality standards are met
  • Review of all jurisdictional overviews by the Treaties Editor
  • Thorough editing processes by OUP's specialist editorial team

Our policies are tailored with the needs of our users in mind. We aim to publish current, accurate, and high quality content that offers quick access on the site and is easy to use in an academic or professional setting. While full text awards and decisions are made freely available to all users in PDF format, subscribers benefit directly from the editorial processes described below. Please direct any queries through the Contact Us page.

Case Reports (Awards and decisions)

Investment Claims aims to publish all publicly available awards and decisions arising out of international investment arbitrations, and related enforcement or review decisions from national courts. Access to the full awards and decisions in PDF format, plus the basic headnote is granted to all users. Other content, such as full scale case reports and analysis is available to subscribers only.

The collection includes awards and decisions issued under the auspices of bodies such as:

  • International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID)
  • ICC International Court of Arbitration
  • London Court of International Arbitration
  • Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce
  • Permanent Court of Arbitration
  • Association of South East Asian Nations arbitral tribunal

The site also reports awards and decisions of ad hoc international arbitral tribunals, such as those dealing with claims presented under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) or under the arbitration rules of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL). Determinations on insurance contracts made by the US Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) are also reported.

Speed of publication

Expert practitioner and academic advisors notify OUP of awards and decisions as soon as they become available. OUP publish the full decision with a basic headnote in advance of publishing the full case report. All newly published awards and decisions are announced on the Investment Claims homepage.

Full case reports and analysis

When will OUP commission a full report?

A full report of a decision or award is commissioned, together with expert analysis where appropriate, for the following types of awards and decisions:

  • Awards on the merits (including interim awards addressing issues relating to the merits of a dispute)
  • Awards dealing with jurisdictional issues
  • Awards dealing with damages, interest and costs
  • Annulment decisions
  • Domestic court decisions relating to international investment arbitration

Generally, OUP will not commission full case reports for the following types of awards and decisions:

  • Procedural orders
  • OPIC determinations

What is included in a full case report?

Full case reports include:

  • Summaries of the facts and findings
  • A note of the arbitral rules applicable to the arbitration
  • A note of the governing law applied
  • Lists of decisions and instruments cited in the full text, and
  • An analysis designed to provide the legal context for the decision*

*Case analysis provides an examination of the issues presented and decided by the decision, so that a reader unfamiliar with the issues in question can understand the holdings and quickly assess the relevance of a decision to a particular area of international law. Awards and decisions will be linked and cross-referenced to other awards, relevant arbitral rules, bilateral investment treaties and instruments cited in the text through the Oxford Law Citator.

How quickly are full case reports published online?

Whilst OUP aims to publish full case reports within three months of initial publication of the decision on Investment Claims, there are occasions when this is not possible, as the editorial values of OUP mean that quality is not sacrificed for speed. New decisions in international investment law often provoke intense debate, and we are careful to allow this to play out. OUP allow contributors sufficient time to understand and consider the importance and relevance of a decision before submitting their analysis. Once published, case reports are announced on the Investment Claims homepage.

Translations of non-English decisions

For decisions issued in languages other than English, OUP will publish any publicly available official English language translation. In instances where an official English language translation is not available, OUP will commission a translation of key paragraphs of the decision.

Translations take time to produce, and as such, decisions which have been translated will be published in their original language first, with further publication of translated elements at a later date.

All OUP-commissioned translations go through a stringent checking process, during which native speakers of the language in question review the work of the translator. The reporter responsible for the original report of the decision is also given the opportunity to review the translation to ensure that they agree with the substance of the translation and that none of the legal nuances of the original language decision are lost.

Translations will only be accessible to subscribers.

Investment treaties and overviews by jurisdiction

Bilateral investment treaty sets- Subscribers only

Investment Claims contains bilateral investment treaty (BIT) sets for the following key jurisdictions:

  • Argentina
  • Australia
  • Austria
  • Belgium–Luxembourg Economic Union
  • Canada
  • China
  • Colombia
  • Cuba
  • Czech Republic
  • Egypt
  • France
  • Germany
  • Greece
  • Hungary
  • India
  • Italy
  • Mexico
  • Netherlands
  • Norway
  • Poland
  • Russian Federation
  • Saudi Arabia
  • South Africa
  • Switzerland
  • United Kingdom
  • United States

Each set comprises a collection of BITs signed by the relevant key jurisdiction, together with a jurisdictional overview providing detailed commentary. BITs are linked to the relevant awards and decisions via the Oxford Law Citator.

Investment treaty overviews by jurisdiction- Subscribers only

For each jurisdiction, an overview is included, written by expert correspondents.

This overview sets out:

  • The history of the programme
  • Current policy
  • An analysis of the programme
  • An analysis of the status of BITs in national law
  • A list of all BITs signed by the jurisdiction (including those not publicly available or not yet included on the site)
  • Links to selected awards discussing BITs signed by the jurisdiction

In some instances the jurisdictional overview will be published shortly after the treaty set.

Translations of non-English versions- Subscribers only

Where an official English version is available, the English version will be published. Where no official English version is available, the treaty will be published in the language of the key jurisdiction being reported on, or, where both countries are considered key jurisdictions, the language first received.

Updating

BIT sets are reviewed by the jurisdictional correspondent and the published information updated where appropriate.

Commentary and analysis

Investment Claims provides online versions of key OUP arbitration books. Each commentary can be searched via the basic and advanced search, browsed by the table of contents, and, where available, contain fully-linked tables of cases.

Monographs- Subscribers only

Key monographs are published on the site. For a full list, please visit our Title List page.

Key instruments in international investment law- Subscribers only

Investment Claims contains a collection of key documents relevant to investment disputes, including:

  • Institutional rules of the major arbitration institutions and entities
  • Multilateral treaties

This set of documents includes those key instruments most often referred to in the awards, decisions and commentaries published on Investment Claims. These documents will be reviewed on a regular basis, and updated where appropriate.