Outlining the duty of confidentiality in connection with arbitration proceedings. There is a need to be careful if a party to an arbitration wishes to disclose documents for purposes outside the arbitration. Most disputes in shipping may be resolved by way of negotiation, but some disputes will – for whatever reason – have to be litigated between the parties either in court or by way of arbitration. Most, if not all, owners and charterers will at some stage have been involved in arbitration – most likely either in London (frequently under an LMAA arbitration) or in New York (frequently under an SMA arbitration). A great number of disputes are resolved according to English law and London arbitration, and if this is the case, it is extremely important to be aware that a party to a London arbitration is subject to a duty of confidentiality. This effectively means that a party is prohibited from disclosing practically a large part of what has been produced or submitted in an arbitration, and this includes not only a party’s written submissions (i.e. claims submissions, defence submissions etc.) but also e.g. transcripts or oral evidence and to the award itself. In other words, once a party is involved in a London arbitration, the possibilities of “using” either the award, the submissions or the documents are very restricted, and with regard to the documents, this relates both to some of the documents a party has itself submitted in the arbitration and also to documents submitted by (i.e. received from) the other party/parties in the arbitration. If there is a need to disclose anything from an arbitration for any purpose outside the arbitration – or a request is received from a third party to see such documents – the best way to deal with this is to seek advice from a P&I or defence club or legal advisers. The LMAA terms do not themselves specify an express duty of confidentiality, and even the UK 1996 Arbitration Act does not mention any specific statutory principle