Originally from Pro-Arbitration Revisited: A Tribute to Professor George Bermann from his Students Over the Years

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When extolling the relative virtues of arbitration against litigation or other forms of dispute resolution, confidentiality is often one of the first features cited. The ability of parties to resolve their disputes swiftly and in private remains a persistent description of the arbitral process. That is at least certainly the perception.  In the 2018 Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) International Arbitration Survey, 87% of respondents (comprising private practitioners, arbitrators, and in-house counsel) considered confidentiality to be “of importance” in international arbitration.  The importance of confidentiality is particularly prominent among ‘users’ of the system: 46% of in-house counsel respondents considered “confidentiality and privacy” to be among the top three most valuable characteristics of arbitration (as per the 2018 QMUL survey).  That is no doubt why the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA) in its “Notes for Parties” says that “confidentiality is still generally regarded as one of the primary underpinnings of arbitration”.