The expression that "there is no property in a
witness" recognises that courts (and, in principle, tribunals)
are entitled to receive every person's evidence to ascertain
the truth in disputes before them.1
Expert witnesses, while often retained privately by parties to
disputes, are commonly engaged on the basis that their paramount
duty is to assist the court or tribunal, which overrides any
obligation to those who appoint them or pay their fees. In other
words, their primary role is to provide an independent opinion on
matters in dispute, and by doing so, assist in their
determination.
In a recent decision referred to for the sake of confidentiality
as A v B,2 the English High Court of Justice
(sitting as the Technology and Construction Court) restrained the
defendants from acting as experts in an ICC arbitration. It did so
by finding that the global group of companies with which the
defendants were affiliated, and under whose banner they marketed
themselves (Exp
