This document provides information and resources for students participating in the VIS East Mooting Competition, including an overview of the competition problem, tips for mooting, and guides on how to research international arbitration law. It details several databases and sources for finding relevant case law, legislation, treaties, and secondary sources. Key databases mentioned include Kluwer Arbitration, Westlaw, LexisNexis, and various journal indexes. Tips are provided on effective search techniques within these resources.

1. latrobe.edu.au CRICOS Provider 00115M
VIS East Mooting Competition
Clare O’Hanlon
Law Senior Learning Advisor (Library) 2017

2. 2La Trobe University
The VIS International Arbitration Moot
 The Problem:
̶ https://vismoot.pace.edu/site/25th-vis-moot/the-problem
 Research Help:
̶ VIS Moot subject guide (This is your best starting place)
̶ Research in International Commercial Arbitration: Special Skills, Special
Sources article by SI Strong.
̶ Electronic Resource Guide to International Commercial Arbitration

3. 3La Trobe University
Image area
Mooting tips from new law graduate
• Read it on your own
• Read it together
• RESEARCH
• Rehearse
More tips:
http://aftersalazar.com/search?q=
mooting

4. 4La Trobe University
Finding books
 Library Search
 CCH Ebooks- Texts from Kluwer Law International and Lexis Nexis Australia
 Oxford Public International Law (Max Plank Encyclopaedia)
 Collected Courses of the Hague Academy of International Law (Brill)
 Brill International Law E-Books

5. Finding primary source material

6. 6La Trobe University
Finding Primary Source Materials
 International Arbitration Act 1974
 CISG (United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods of
1980)
̶ Pace's CISG database brings you text and annotations organized by CISG
article.
̶ UNCITRAL CISG database links to the purpose, text, and explanatory notes of
CISG by article number.
 New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral
Awards
̶ Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards: A Global
Commentary on the New York Convention, Kronke, Nacimiento, et al. (ed)
(Book from Kluwer Database)
 Convention on the Settlement of Investment Disputes between States and Nationals
of Other States (ICSID)
 UNILEX on CISG & UNIDROIT Principles: International Case Law and Bibliography

7. 7La Trobe University
Cases and Arbitral Awards
 Databases: Kluwer, Westlaw etc…
 Permanent Court of Arbitration – Cases (browse or search)
 Contracts for the International Sale of Goods - cases and arbitral awards:
• 2016 Digest of Case Law on the United Nations Convention on Contracts for
the International Sale of Goods
• 2012 UNCITRAL Digest of Case Law on the Model Law on International
Commercial Arbitration
Explain each article and case interpretation (with case citations).
• CLOUT database.
• Browse by country or legislative text (e.g New York Convention)
• Search by article number, date, parties, case number, and/or CLOUT number.
• Pace database. Search by article number or by word descriptor.
• UNIDROIT Principles - cases and arbitral awards:
o Unilex database. Search under "cases" by "articles & issues" OR search under
"subjects“

8. 8La Trobe University
About Kluwer Arbitration
 World Leading Online Resource for International Arbitration Research
 Categories include:
̶ Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs)
̶ Conventions
̶ Countries
̶ Legislation
̶ NY Convention Decisions
̶ Organizations and Rules
 Primary Materials:
̶ BITs – almost 1700 treaties
̶ Case Law – over 5,000 court decisions and 1,750 awards
̶ Conventions - 25 multilateral treaties

9. 9La Trobe University
About Kluwer Arbitration
̶ Legislation - almost 500 laws for key jurisdictions
̶ Model clauses: close to 100 model clauses from major arbitral institutions
̶ Rules – over 400 rules from major arbitral institutions
 Analytical Content:
̶ 88 books & 5 journals e.g. Arbitration International and Journal of International
Arbitration
̶ Blog Posts
̶ ITA Reports
̶ Practice Tools

10. 10La Trobe University
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Searching Kluwer Arbitration
General Search Principles:
 Asterisk (*) for arbitra* will find
arbitration, arbitrations, arbitrability
 Boolean Operators: AND / OR / AND
NOT / NEAR
Contract AND termination
Corruption OR misconduct
 Phrase Search (“contract termination”)
 Refine by
̶ Publication type (books, journals etc)
̶ Content type (court decisions,
commentaries, rules and legislation)
Jurisdiction
̶ Party
̶ Organisation
̶ Court
• Save your search to save time in the long
run

11. 11La Trobe University
Browsing Kluwer arbitration
Browsing is useful if you are new to a topic and want to identify and understand key
words, courts, conventions and so on
• Browse books, journals and new content
• Browse by practice tools, jurisdiction, organisation
• Browse by special focus (court decisions, treaties, convention decisions)
• Browse blogs to easily identify key trends and topical issues in relatively plain English

12. 12La Trobe University
Secondary Sources: Journal Articles and Databases Coverage
AGIS
APAIS
Westlaw US, Lexis.com:
US & Canada Westlaw UK,
Lexis.com: UK
Index to Legal Periodicals (Ebsco)
Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals (Hein)

13. 13La Trobe University
Secondary Sources- Journal Articles via Databases
Index to Legal Periodicals (Ebsco)
Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals (Hein online)
 Use general search principles:
̶ Quotation marks: “contract termination” or “international arbitration” or
“United Nations Commission on International Trade Law for phrase searching
̶ Asterisk: fixed pric* for truncation- finds fixed price, fixed pricing, etc.
̶ The Near operator (N#): finds words near each other regardless of word order.
o E.g.. legal N5 principles will find legal principles as well as principles of
legal reform.
̶ The Within Operator: (W#) - finds words in the order in which you entered
them.
o In the above example using W4 would find legal principles but not
principles of legal reform.
̶ Subject headings of articles help you gather related articles on a particular
topic or concept

14. 14La Trobe University
 Databases Tab- Westlaw
̶ Advanced search
 Browse by Area or search.
 Journal Articles in Westlaw
 Browse by journal or
Click all International Arbitration
Journals to search the list.
 Once in a title, browse recent
articles or search within the
journal.
Westlaw

15. 15La Trobe University
Secondary Sources- Lexis.com
Lexis.com
• International Arbitration Tab
• International Arbitration Law Toolbox
Lexis.com (UK Law Reviews)
Lexis.com (US & Canadian Law
Reviews)
 Lexis.com Search Tips:
̶ To find a journal with a specific title / author:
o title(new players on the international stage)
o author(spiro)
̶ To find articles with terms within a certain distance of each other, and
Truncation
o Fraud w/5 contract termination!

16. 16La Trobe University
Company, industry and business information
Business analysis expert help
 http://latrobe.libguides.com/businessanalysis
Business databases
 Business Source Complete (EBSCO)
 EconLit Full Text (EBSCO)
 ABI/INFORM Complete (Proquest)
Newspapers
 Factiva
 The Age
 Australian Financial Review
 Sydney Morning Herald
NOTE: We may not hold all the articles in these indexes in Full Text.
Clicking on the Full Text Finder link next to the article may bring it up or check if we
hold the article by looking for the Journal in the Library Search Journals Tab.

17. 17La Trobe University
Search Strategy: Extra Hints
Build on your search strategy based on previous search results
• Identify key words, organisations, rules, principles and references
• Keep a record of previous searches to help you manage your search strategy and
results
Use Subject headings to:
• Gather together related items
• Find alternative keywords and concepts you may not have thought to use
Start with a reference that is highly relevant to your research
Gather, search, scan and aggregate related references by chaining:
• backward chaining: reach into the past to find citations before a particular relevant
reference (i.e. in its bibliography/reference list) and add new links to your chain of
information
• forward chaining: look up the reference in Web of Science and/or Google Scholar to
find articles that have cited it and bring your research from the past to the present

18. Thank you
latrobe.edu.au CRICOS Provider 00115M
Further help and clareification
In person: Library Help Desk at your campus library
Phone Ask La Trobe: 1300 La Trobe (1300 52 87623)
• Achieve @ Uni:
www.latrobe.edu.au/students/support/achieve
 Law Expert help guide
 Vis Moot help guide and Mooting Resources
Your online library:
http://www.latrobe.edu.au/library
Your senior learning advisors
Melissa Spain
M.Spain@latrobe.edu.au
Clare O’Hanlon:
C.OHanlon@latrobe.edu.au