The World Arbitration Update (WAU) updates the global community on key and novel topics of investment and international commercial arbitration, and public international law in a decentralized forum, emphasizing on inclusion and diversity, and going well beyond the main centers and cities where international arbitration traditionally takes place.

By the end of the 1990s, and even by the end of the 2000s, it may have been possible to keep up to date individually by directly digesting the few investment arbitration awards and main publicly disclosed international commercial arbitration awards. Out of approximately 3,300 investment treaties in force, 1,138 have been invoked in investment arbitrations. As those investment cases have led to 225 awards rendered between 2011 and 2020, and as the use of international commercial arbitration has also reached new heights during the last decade, WAU provides an international arbitration update focused on key investment and international commercial issues with global and regional impact.