Clifford Chance
The UNCITRAL Rules on Transparency in Treaty-based Investor-State Arbitration
11 May 2014
On 1 April 2014, the new "UNCITRAL Rules on Transparency in Treaty-based Investor-State Arbitration" (the Rules) came into effect.
The Rules are intended to address concerns raised (principally by Non-Governmental Organisations (or NGOs)) regarding the lack of transparency in treaty-based arbitration proceedings involving States. In this sense, the Rules are consistent with a trend towards greater transparency in investor-State arbitration, which has already seen developments towards transparency made by ICSID, the PCA and NAFTA.
On their face, the calls for greater transparency and public access inherently conflict with the notion of confidentiality in arbitral proceedings. The Rules attempt, therefore, to strike a balance between these two competing considerations. In short, they allow members of the public access to documents and hearings in UNCITRAL arbitrations, as well as granting them the opportunity to make submissions in certain circumstances, but allow for exceptions to be made to protect confidential information.
The following briefing summarises the key features of the Rules and considers the likely impact of the Rules on future UNCITRAL proceedings.
