ICCA signs MoU with the Scottish Arbitration Centre to make arbitral awards available in the ICCA Awards Series

ICCA is pleased to announce that it will be collaborating with the Scottish Arbitration Centre (“the Centre”) to make available in the ICCA Awards Series previously unpublished arbitral awards, duly anonymised to maintain the confidentiality requirements set out in the Centre’s Arbitration Rules and in Scotland’s Arbitration Act.

The MoU was signed on 6 September at the Edinburgh International Arbitration Festival (ArbFest2024) by the Scottish Arbitration Centre’s Chief Executive Andrew Mackenzie and ICCA Executive Director Lise Bosman. 

Speaking to the agreement, Andrew Mackenzie, said:

“We are delighted to continue our collaboration with ICCA and now in respect of the ICCA Awards Series. 

 

It is key to the Centre to ensure confidentiality in the process and the full anonymity of awards. Publication of our awards would require party and arbitrator consent before and after any award is issued. Should those involved agree to publication, the Centre will review the materials and approve them before publication takes place. Such approval will focus mainly on ensuring confidentiality in the process and that sufficient anonymisation has taken place. 

 

Given our robust approach to protecting confidentiality in arbitration, it is a sign of our trust in ICCA that we have agreed to any publication of confidential awards.” 

Lise Bosman said:

“ICCA’s collaboration with the Scottish Arbitration Centre dates back to 2016 in Mauritius, when the Centre won the bid to host the 2020 ICCA Congress — later of course the successful and celebratory post-pandemic 2022 Edinburgh Congress. Our collaboration has continued through #ArbFest 2023 and #ArbFest 2024, and we are now delighted to extend this collaboration to the publication of arbitral awards. ICCA is mindful that confidentiality of awards is of the utmost importance to the Centre and to Scotland as a jurisdiction, and we are honoured that the Centre has decided to entrust ICCA with the publication of its anonymised awards.”

The Scottish Arbitration Centre’s awards will be joining over 650 arbitral awards already published by ICCA in the Yearbook Commercial Arbitration since 1976, and since 2023 in the ICCA Awards Series, all available on the Kluwer Arbitration database.