Constantine Partasides QC outlined throughout his speech during the International Council for Commercial Arbitration (ICCA) Congress in 2018 that the concept of an implied duty of confidentiality should be rejected. This is due to the potential to draw:
“the curtain of confidentiality down over every arbitration, as a matter of course, whether the parties have selected it or not. Such an implied duty is not based on party consent and its disappearance will not erode in any way parties’ ability to choose to make their arbitration confidential.”
This article outlines whether Partasides is correct in stating that an implied duty of confidentiality should be rejected for international commercial arbitration and assesses whether Australia has “gone the wrong way” with the statutory amendments to the International Arbitration Act 1974 (Cth).