SOUTH KOREA Law and Practice Contributed by: Eun Young Park, Zac Sharpe, Joon Won Lee and Yoo Lim Oh, Lee & Ko
10. The Award 10.1 Legal Requirements
8.3 Powers of Compulsion Article 28 (1) of the KAA authorises the tribunal, either on its own initiative or at the request of a party, to seek assistance from a competent court in taking evidence. The tribunal may request the court to take evidence itself or to order a witness or document holder, includ - ing a non-party, to appear before the tribunal or pro - duce necessary documents (Article 28 (5)). Where the court takes evidence, the parties and arbitrators may participate with the permission of the presiding judge (Article 28 (3)). Only the tribunal may request judicial assistance; nei - ther the parties nor their counsel may apply directly to the court. While the tribunal may issue procedural orders to the parties, coercive measures against wit - nesses or non-parties require court assistance. The KAA does not expressly impose a duty of confi - dentiality in arbitral proceedings. In practice, however, arbitral proceedings in Korea are in principle conduct - ed on a confidential basis. Separately, parties may enter into confidential - ity agreements or adopt arbitration rules containing confidentiality provisions. For example, Articles 59.1 and 59.3 of the 2026 KCAB Rules provide that, unless otherwise agreed, arbitration proceedings and their records are confidential and closed to the public, and that information or documents related to the arbitra - tion may not be disclosed unless otherwise agreed by the parties or required by law. 9. Confidentiality 9.1 Extent of Confidentiality Information obtained in arbitral proceedings may nev - ertheless be disclosed where required by law, includ - ing where necessary for subsequent court proceed - ings relating to the recognition, enforcement or setting aside of an arbitral award. The scope of any such dis - closure may also be subject to the parties’ agreement or applicable arbitration rules.
Under Article 32 of the KAA, an arbitral award must be in writing and signed by all arbitrators. For a tribu - nal consisting of three or more arbitrators, however, the remaining arbitrators may sign if those unable to do so do not constitute a majority and the reason is stated. The award must state the reasons on which it is based, unless the parties have agreed otherwise or the award records a settlement, and specify its date and the seat of arbitration. Under Article 32 (4) of the KAA, an authentic copy of the award must be delivered to each party in accord - ance with the requirements for written communica - tions set out in Article 4 (1)–(3), generally by personal delivery or delivery to the party’s domicile, place of business or mailing address. Absent party agreement, delivery by email alone is insufficient. The KAA does not prescribe a time limit for delivering an award. Any deadline is governed by the parties’ agreement, appli - cable arbitration rules or procedural orders. The requirement to deliver an authentic copy of the award is generally regarded as mandatory in nature, although the parties may agree on the method of delivery. This requirement is significant because the three-month period for bringing an action to set aside the award begins upon receipt of the authentic copy. 10.2 Types of Remedies The KAA does not expressly limit the types of reme - dies that may be granted by a tribunal. While monetary relief is most common, declaratory relief is increas - ingly sought. The availability of a particular remedy nevertheless depends on the applicable substantive law. Korean law has traditionally limited damages to compensa - tion for actual loss and has not recognised punitive damages except where expressly provided by stat - ute. Since 2011, however, various statutes have intro - duced limited forms of punitive damages, generally capped at three or five times the actual loss, in areas including personal information, fair trade and intellec - tual property.
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