Access to Information and Awards

Abstract

DURING RECENT decades arbitration has become the most commonly used method of resolving international disputes. This is amply evidenced by statistics published by arbitral institutions on the number of new cases they receive each year, interviews with business persons and lawyers indicating what their preferred dispute resolution mechanism is, and the abundant literature on international arbitration. The development of business practices and international commercial law has created a need for more widespread knowledge about international arbitration and sometimes greater transparency in its use. One way of addressing this need is to increase and simplify access to information and awards. For these reasons alone, no one would deny that information about arbitration should be accessible. The question is rather to determine what sort of information should be accessible and why. Two preliminary remarks should be made. The first is that the term ‘access’ as used in this article does not cover legal teaching on arbitration.1 The second is that the term ‘information’ is understood in the present context to have a broad meaning covering all data and details that are related to an arbitration. Limiting the debate to the question of access to arbitral awards would certainly be too restrictive and fall short of answering the needs and expectations of all those involved in international transactions. The key question of access to information, and especially arbitral awards, raises the following two sub-questions: (1) how can this information be identified and (2) how could it be obtained? Anyone trying to identify information about arbitration will face two difficulties. On the one hand, research will be complicated by the profusion of potential or true sources of information, and on the other hand, finding the relevant sources may prove to be more cumbersome than initially expected. ### (a) Existence of Various Sources of Information Identifying the information presupposes a method for …