Commentary on Sections Enforcing and challenging arbitral awards etc. Section 15 – Anonymity in legal proceedings
59.Section 15 protects the identity of parties to arbitration in civil legal proceedings relating to an arbitration. This protection only covers the parties’ identities and not the other contents of any court judgement. Enforcement proceedings under section 12 are excluded, since a party not complying with an arbitral award should not be able to hide behind confidentiality. See also default rule 26 which provides that the arbitrator(s) and the parties must not disclose confidential information relating to the arbitration.
60.Section 15(1) provides that this anonymity may be available on an application to the court which has discretion as to whether to grant an order providing this protection. Section 15(2) however provides that the court must grant an application for anonymity unless satisfied that one of the exceptions in that subsection which would permit disclosure apply. The court’s decision on whether to grant anonymity is not subject to appeal (section 15(3)) although the court can revisit its order to grant anonymity if the exceptions would apply.