Publication of International Arbitration Awards and Decisions - ARIA - Vol. 25, No. 1 2014

Author(s):

Report of the Committee on International Commercial Disputes of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York

Page Count:

18 pages

Media Description:

1 PDF Download

Published:

August, 2014

Jurisdictions:

International

Practice Areas:

Confidentiality and Publication,

Arbitral Awards

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Originally from American Review of International Arbitration - ARIA

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I. INTRODUCTION

Publication of arbitral awards and other decisions (most importantly,

challenges to arbitrators) has become more common but is not without

controversy. The trend toward more publication has the potential to change, for

good or ill, many things traditionally associated with international arbitration,

including confidentiality, concentration of knowledge and expertise in a more or

less defined group, and the extent to which arbitral decisions and awards should

have persuasive or precedential effect.

The International Commercial Disputes Committee thought it would be useful

to the international arbitration community, as it considers these issues, to gather

information on the differing policies and practices of the major international

institutions. We surveyed ten of the major institutions of international arbitration

and found great diversity among their rules and practices. At the extremes, some

publish nothing and others try to publish as much as possible. Among those that

publish awards or decisions, there are differences in the extent of information

redacted and in what types of decisions the institutions consider important to

publish. Most focus on final awards, but one institution has chosen to publish

only decisions on challenges to arbitrators.

We hope that this guide to the diversity of institutional practices will stimulate

the ongoing debate within the international arbitration community about the pros

and cons of publication and the different ways in which it can be done. It may

also be useful to clients and their counsel in evaluating not just whether to

arbitrate but also which institution to choose.

This report first outlines the issues posed by publication, with the goal of

framing the issues and suggesting areas for further empirical and normative

exploration, rather than advocating any specific practice. It then states the

questions we asked of the institutions and summarizes their answers, along

with other information obtained from their websites and rules. The report ends

with a selected bibliography showing where the institutions publish

information on awards and other decisions and collecting citations of articles

on the issues.