We’ve reported a few of times on investment treaty arbitrations (the Argentina v. BG Group case, and the judicial assistance applications arising out of the Lago Agrio litigation, here and here). These arbitrations raise issues of public concern that are typically not present in traditional private arbitration, and therefore, there has been talk of a move away from the usual default assumption of confidentiality that generally applies in the arbitration field. Professor Hunter at the Kluwer Arbitration Blog provided a good overview of the issue in a September 2010 post.

UNCITRAL Working Group II, which deals with arbitration and conciliation, is set to address the issue of transparency in investment treaty arbiration in New York beginning on February 7. You can find all of the relevant preparatory materials at UNCITRAL’s website. If anyone has updates on what happens at the meeting, I’d be happy to publish them, with or without attribution; please use the Contact page.