LIECHTENSTEIN Law and Practice Contributed by: Moritz Blasy, Nicolai Binkert, Simon Ott and Christian Scheffknecht, Schurti Partners Attorneys at Law Ltd
• 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. • 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. 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 vote. Further, it is stated that no arbitrator shall abstain from voting. As a matter of the Liechtenstein Arbitration Law, an arbitral award shall be issued in writing, showing the date on which it was rendered and the seat of the arbi - tral tribunal. In the absence of any agreement between the parties, (i) it suffices when the arbitral award is signed by the majority of arbitrators (the award shall name the reasons for the absence of the signatures), and (ii) the award shall state the grounds which led to the decision. In fact, the Liechtenstein Rules contain the same provisions on the form of the arbitral award. Neither the Liechtenstein Arbitration Law nor the Liechtenstein Rules stipulate time limits within which the arbitration award must be delivered. 10.2 Types of Remedies The Liechtenstein Arbitration Law does not contain any specific provisions on the types of remedies that an arbitral tribunal may award. In general, the awarded remedy shall be defined by reference to the applicable substantive law on merits. However, there are limits to be considered. For example, an arbitral award ren - 10. The Award 10.1 Legal Requirements
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