Lloyd's Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly
THE LIMITS OF CONFIDENTIALITY IN ARBITRATION
Emmott v. Michael Wilson & Partners
Confidentiality is often assumed by commercial parties to be an inherent aspect of an arbitration proceeding, and often influences their choice of arbitration in preference to litigation through the courts.1
Yet, despite this assumption and the perceived importance of confidentiality, jurisdictions vary widely on the vexing question whether or not there is or ought to be a legal obligation of confidence to support the commercial expectation.2
1. See, eg, A Redfern and M Hunter, Law and Practice of International Commercial Arbitration
, 4th edn (Sweet & Maxwell, 2004), [1–53] (confidentiality “is often taken to be one of the important advantages of arbitration”).
2. For a recent jurisdictional comparison, see JW Rowley (ed), “Arbitration World”, The European Lawyer
, 2006, xxvi.
CASE AND COMMENT
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