Confidentiality in Arbitration Hinders the Growth of Jurisprudence and Common Law

Ms. Astha Sehgal, Associate, participated in a session on the issue pertaining to ‘Confidentiality in Arbitration’, organized by Singapore International Arbitration Centre and Indian Arbitration Forum as supporting organization.

The key points discussed in the session were as follows:

• The implied obligation of maintaining confidentiality arising from arbitration agreements.

• Difficulty in balancing the proponents of transparency and confidentiality in commercial arbitration agreements.

• Growth in settlement of technical matters such as asset recovery, investor-state disputes etc, through negotiations and mediations.

• Availability of alternative dispute resolution mechanism for parties engaging in cross-border commercial transactions.

• An increase in the need of resolving disputes arising from joint venture agreements entered between joint-venture partners, through arbitration.