Evidentiary Privileges in International Arbitration

A Comparative Analysis under English, American, Swiss and French Law

Nicolas Grégoire

Global markets offer a multitude of business opportunities and the shift towards multi-jurisdictional transactions has resulted in an increase in international disputes. Rules of evidence, on the other hand, including evidentiary privileges, have been conceived for proceedings in local courts and are not adjusted to international disputes submitted to arbitration. The purpose of this book is to review the evidentiary privileges existing under English, American, Swiss and French law that are the most likely to be invoked in arbitration, to determine which laws govern evidentiary privileges in international arbitration and, finally, to determine whether there exists a preponderance of practice suggesting that certain evidentiary privileges could develop into transnational rules in international arbitration.