Bermuda has two separate and distinct systems of arbitration. The first, which applies to international commercial arbitration, is under the Bermuda International Conciliation and Arbitration Act 1993 and adopts the UNCITRAL Model Law. The second, under the Arbitration Act 1986, applies to all arbitrations that are not international commercial arbitrations and adopts the law which applied in England before the 1996 reforms.
Recent case law has established that, as a matter of Bermuda law, arbitration is a confidential process, under both of these two alternative systems of arbitration. This means not only that arbitrations in Bermuda governed by Bermuda law are to be held in private, but also that information concerning the arbitrations and what has transpired in the arbitration room is generally to be treated as strictly confidential.
