Abstract
Confidentiality has been traditionally considered as an implicit obligation arising out of an arbitration agreement. In the last years, however, transparency gained more and more importance, so that the two principles now coexist and must be carefully balanced. In the light of the practice of the main arbitral institutions, at least in two fields a significant development in favor of transparency can be noted: i) the required standards of neutrality and impartiality upon the arbitrators; ii) the publication of the awards. With regard to the duties of confidentiality properly said, the picture is instead far from being settled as their ground and scope is very debated in various jurisdictions. The Author's submission is that, in absence of specific legal or contractual provisions addressing the issue, a distinction must be made between domestic and international commercial arbitration. while the former is subject to the relevant characters of the national systems, the latter, given its own features, should be in principle recognised as confidential proceedings. Finally, the law applicable to confidentiality is faced by proposing the applicability in principle of the lex arbitri.