Arbitration is an alternative to litigation in which an arbitrator or a panel of arbitrators listen to the positions of the disputing parties in a relatively informal proceeding and then issue a decision on how the situation should be resolved. With mediation, a disinterested third party tries to help the interested parties reach a settlement that resolves their dispute. ADR is an umbrella term encompassing arbitration, mediation and other alternatives to formal legal proceedings.
This entry covers:
I. Leading Information Sources
The American Arbitration Association posts a lot of useful arbitration information. Recent developments in ADR legislation and news are posted on ADR World. For questions, you can contact the AAA (800-778-7879).
Also, for securities-related arbitration, check out the SEC Law Arbitration Center and the Arbitration and Mediation section of the FINRA Web site or search Lexis or Westlaw (FINRA-ARB). You might also want to see the "Bibliography of Selected Securities Arbitration Resources: 1997-2007," 76 U. Cin. L. Rev. 599 (2008)
Kluwer Arbitration posts key conventions, laws, rules and cases related to commercial arbitration. For international commercial arbitration materials see Jean Wenger's International Commercial Arbitration: Locating the Resources and/or the
bibliography of International Commercial Arbitration Resources in Print and Electronic Format.
For labor-related arbitration, see Researching Labor Arbitration and Alternative Dispute Resolution in Employment by Suzanne Thorpe and Laura J. Cooper.
II. Arbitration Awards
There are at least six kinds of arbitration awards:
1. Commercial: Most commercial arbitration in the U.S. is handled by either the American Arbitration Association (AAA) or Judicial Arbitration & Mediation Services (JAMS). Their awards are not published, except for securities arbitration (see below).
2. Securities: Securities arbitration awards are searchable in the FINRA Arbitration Awards Online database. The database includes FINRA decisions from July 2007, when the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) assumed assumed the arbitration responsibilities of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) and several other exchanges. Pre-July 2008 awards from those exchanges are also included in the FINRA database.
Securities-related arbitration awards are also available from Westlaw (FSEC-ARB) and Lexis, generally back to 1989.
A few awards decided in 1986 and 1987 are include in the FINRA database. For other pre-1989 awards, call the relevant exchange.
3. International arbitration awards and court decisions are reported in the Yearbook Commercial Arbitration. The yearbook also publishes a report on developments in various countries, a bibliography of arbitration publications, and a list of the members of the International Council for Commercial Arbitration. The results of international arbitration between nations is reported in the United Nations' Reports of International Arbitral Awards. Arbitration awards from the International Center for Dispute Resolution are available on Westlaw (ICDR-ARBAWARD).
4. Patent arbitration awards are not enforceable until notice of the award is filed with the Commissioner of the Patent and Trademark Office (under 35 USC ยง294). The notice is then put into the patent's file at the PTO. To find out if a notice is in the file, you can search Derwent's LitAlert database (on CD-ROM or Dialog's File 670) or hire a patent research company, such as Woolcott & Co. (800-223-9697) to check the file at the PTO.
5. Maritime arbitration awards are published in the Society of Maritime Arbitrators Award Service. These awards are searchable on Lexis back to 1959 (ADMRTY;USAWDS).
6. Labor & Employment American Arbitration Association (AAA) arbitration awards are available on Lexis; labor awards are available from 1999 (LABOR;AAAEMP) and employment awards are available from 2003 (LABOR;AAALAB).
Labor arbitration awards are indexed by subject and summarized in the Labor Arbitration Information System (LAIS) by LRP Publications. There is an electronic version on Westlaw (LAIS), which covers awards back to 1960. Note: Before 1970, LAIS was called the Labor Arbitration Index.
Published Labor Awards: The main sources for full-text published arbitration awards are BNA's Labor Arbitration Reports and CCH's Labor Arbitration Awards, while LAIS publishes selected awards. There is an electronic version of CCH's Labor Arbitration Awards on Lexis (CCHEMP;LARAD). There is an electronic version of BNA's Labor Arbitration Reports on both Lexis (LABOR;LRRLA) Westlaw (LRR-LA). (Note: On Westlaw, you can search Labor Arbitration Reports awards along with unpublished awards using the LA-COMB file).
Labor arbitration awards are also published or summarized in BNA's Government Employee Relations Report and the AAA's Labor Arbitration in Government, Arbitration in the Schools, and Summary of Labor Arbitration Awards.
Unpublished Labor Awards: "Unpublished" awards are available from (1) ARBIT on Westlaw, (2) BNA's Unpublished Arbitration Decisions, which is also available on Westlaw (LA-UNP); and (3) Arbitrator Qualification Reports, available in print or through the R.C. Simpson web site. (Note: On Westlaw, you can search Unpublished Arbitration Decisions along with Labor Arbitration Reports awards in the LA-COMB file).
Shepardizing Labor Awards: You can Shepardize citations from any of the published sources using Shepard's Labor Arbitration Citations in print or on Lexis, using the format: "xx-x lab. arb. awards (cch) Pxxxx" or "xxx lab. arb. rep. (bna) xxx".
For more about labor and employment arbitration awards, see Researching Labor Arbitration and Alternative Dispute Resolution in Employment by Suzanne Thorpe and Laura J. Cooper.
Another source: Various arbitration awards are filed in U.S. Federal and state courts. You can search collections of those court-filed awards on Westlaw (xx-ARBAWARD for awards filed in a particular state or COURTARB-ALL to search all available awards).
III. Arbitration and Mediation Rules
The American Arbitration Association (AAA) publishes rules for Commercial, Labor and Patent arbitration, and many others. The current versions are posted on the AAAs Web site (www.adr.org). Some AAA rules are searchable on Lexis in the ADR library. The AAA's (formerly "voluntary") Labor arbitration rules are also published in v.3 of the Labor Relations Reporter.
For securities arbitration, FINRA follows rules adopted from the NYSE and the NASD, which are available through FINRA's Rules page. FINRA also posts a Code of Arbitration Procedure.
The U.S. Copyright Office's CARP and Licensing Information page links to the Rules and Regulations of the Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panels, plus a lot of other information related to copyright arbitration.
The Society for Maritime Arbitrators posts rules for both arbitration and mediation. The Society's arbitration rules are republished in Domke on Commercial Arbitration and the related Westlaw database (DOMSMA-RULES).
The arbitration and mediation rules of the Society of Maritime Arbitrators are posted on the Society Web site.
The Mediation Procedures and the Non-Administered and International Non-Administered Arbitration Rules of the CPR Institute for Dispute Resolution are posted in the "CPR Clauses, Rules, Codes & Procedures" section of the Institute Web site .
The Arbitration Rules of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) are are posted on the International Commercial Arbitration & Conciliation page of the UNCITRAL web site. They are also published in the supplement to Oehmke's International Arbitration. See also "United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL)."
The Arbitration Rules for the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and its International Court of Arbitration are posted on the ICC Web site (www.iccwbo.org). Or you get the rules as printed pamphlets by calling ICC Publishing (212-206-1150). The ICC rules are reprinted and discussed in detail in A Guide to the New ICC Rules of Arbitration (Kluwer Law International) and the Annotated Guide to the 1998 ICC Arbitration Rules with Commentary (Oceana Publishing). See also "International Chamber of Commerce."
The German Institution of Arbitration posts its rules in English and several other languages on the the "Schiedsgerichtsordnung (SchO) / Arbitration Rules (Rules)" page. You can also get their rules in English from Westlaw (DIS-ARBRULES) if you don't mind paying.
Note: The Critical Documents Sourcebook Annotated includes many types or rules for international arbitration. Many other kinds of arbitration rules are available in the Handbook of Arbitration Practice.
For arbitration relating to letters of credit, see "Letters of Credit."
IV. Treaties and Conventions
The U.S. Department of State posts links to UNCITRAL materials and other treaties concerning international arbitration, as does UNCITRAL. The Inter-American Convention on International Commercial Arbitration is published in Martindale-Hubbell. An annotated edition of the New York Convention (the UN Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards) and the Washington Convention (the Convention on the Settlement of Investment Disputes between States and Nationals of Other States) are posted for subscribers on the Kluwer Arbitration page.
