Originally from Arbitration Law and Practice in Asia

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I. INTRODUCTION: ARBITRATION IN TAIWAN – HISTORY AND INFRASTRUCTURE

A. History and Current Legislation on Arbitration

1. Historical evolution of law relating to arbitration

The contemporary arbitration system of Taiwan is basically transplanted from western countries. After about 50 years’ evolution of arbitration in Taiwan, it has already become a mature and constantly relied-on dispute settlement mechanism in Taiwan.

Taiwan’s arbitration system was first established based on a legislation enacted in China. In 1921 when the government of the Republic was still in Nanjing, the “Temporary Act for Commercial Arbitration” was enacted. It was repealed in Taiwan in 1961 when the “Commercial Arbitration Act” was enacted. The Commercial Arbitration Act was further replaced by the current Arbitration Law in 1998.

2. Current law

The enactment of the 1998 “Arbitration Law” marked an important development in Taiwan’s arbitration practices. The Arbitration Law includes many new features similar to those included in the legislations in other countries. These new features are the disclosure requirements, the ethical requirements, and the amiable compositeur provisions, among others. When the Arbitration Law was drafted, many foreign legislations, such as those of United Kingdom, the United States, Germany and Japan, as well as the UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration were taken into important consideration.

3. Confidentiality and publication of awards

Usually an arbitral award is not published. It is mainly because of the institutional arbitration rules requiring the arbitrators to maintain the confidentiality of the proceedings.