LIECHTENSTEIN Law and Practice Contributed by: Moritz Blasy, Nicolai Binkert, Simon Ott and Kathrin Binder, Schurti Partners Attorneys at Law Ltd
may apply to the ordinary courts for legal assistance regarding the collection of evidence or the interroga - tion of witnesses. Consequently, the interrogation of a witness or the production of a document can only be indirectly forced by an arbitral tribunal in Liechten - stein through legal assistance by Liechtenstein and/ or foreign ordinary courts.
• Due to a de facto exclusion of the public at the setting-aside proceedings, the protection of con - fidentiality is even ensured if the proceedings are brought before the ordinary court. No other set of arbitration rules contains such wide- ranging provisions to protect confidentiality. There - fore, the Liechtenstein Rules are particularly attractive in highly sensitive matters which require the utmost discretion and confidentiality. The Liechtenstein Arbitration Law does not contain any provisions explicitly dealing with confidentiality of arbitral proceedings. Therefore, unless the parties expressly agree otherwise, parties to arbitration pro - ceedings which are governed by the Liechtenstein Arbitration Law are not prohibited to disclose infor - mation obtained in arbitral proceedings in subsequent proceedings. The Liechtenstein Rules contain an explicit provision stating that unless the parties expressly agree in writ - ing to the contrary, the parties, their representatives, experts, the arbitrators, any commissioner, the sec - retariat and their auxiliary persons shall, as a general principle, keep confidential all awards and orders, as well as all materials submitted and facts made avail - able by other participants in the proceedings in the framework of the arbitral proceedings, unless a right to them exists in other ways, save and to the extent that a disclosure by a party may be imperative to fulfil a legal duty to protect or pursue a legal right or to enforce or challenge an award. Hence, the obligation to maintain confidentiality shall persist even after con - clusion of the arbitral proceedings.
9. Confidentiality 9.1 Extent of Confidentiality
The Liechtenstein Arbitration Law does not contain any provisions explicitly dealing with confidentiality of arbitral proceedings. Nevertheless, confidentiality is a matter of high priority in Liechtenstein. In fact, confidentiality is one of the most important features of the Liechtenstein Rules. Confidentiality is, inter alia, protected by the following provisions of the Liechten - stein Rules: • Only persons subject to a statutory duty of confi - dentiality may be appointed as arbitrators. • The production of documents is based on the Liechtenstein Civil Procedure Code and, therefore, regulated very strictly in comparison to common law tradition. • The arbitral tribunal may order that copies of documents and evidence should not be physi - cally handed over to the other party. Instead, such documents should be presented for inspection at the seat of the arbitral tribunal or at another appro - priate location. • All parties involved in the arbitration proceedings are obliged to protect confidentiality. The breach of confidentiality is sanctioned by a penalty. The obligation to protect confidentiality continues after the termination of the arbitration proceeding. • The arbitral tribunal is obliged to make all appro - priate arrangements to protect confidentiality. In particular, it may order that an expert witness (who in turn is subject to professional secrecy) reviews documents and reports on the content of such documents to the arbitral tribunal. As a result, there is no need to produce the documents concerned for inspection by the arbitral tribunal or the oppos - ing party.
10. The Award 10.1 Legal Requirements
Under the Liechtenstein Arbitration Law, unless the parties agree otherwise, the arbitral award shall be made by majority vote of the arbitrators in arbitration proceedings with more than one arbitrator. The Liech - tenstein Rules contain the same provision. In addition, the Liechtenstein Rules stipulate that the presiding arbitrator shall have the casting vote in case of a tie
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