Key Point
- The UK Court of Appeal appears to have struck a balance between a blanket rule of non-disclosure, and a rule in favour of public disclosure of judgments.
The adverse effect of publicity is often an important consideration for parties when they are deciding how to resolve a dispute. One of the traditional advantages of arbitration was that it was generally understood to offer a confidential forum for the resolution of commercially sensitive disputes. However, the confidentiality of arbitration proceedings is not absolute, and recent articles in this publication have examined some of the exceptions which can apply.
The confidentiality of arbitration proceedings was considered once again in a recent judgment of the English Court of Appeal in Department of Economic Policy and Development of the City of Moscow v Bankers Trust Company and Ors [2004] EWCA Civ 314. The question the court considered was not one to do with the arbitration itself but rather the
