You Will Be Heard: The European Court of Human Rights Clarifies the Arbitration Right to a Public Hearing

摘要

The European Court of Human Rights' landmark judgment last fall in international sports arbitration elevated the status of a public hearing in the ADR processes of the Court of Arbitration for Sport. The case is Mutu and Pechstein v. Switzerland, No. 40575/10 and No. 67474/10, Eur. Ct. H.R. (Oct. 2, 2018). The judgment is pertinent to commercial arbitration since Article 6.1 of the European Convention on Human Rights on due process, a principal subject of the decision, applies generally to arbitration. The Court of Arbitration for Sport immediately revised its rules to incorporate the European Court's view on the right to an arbitration hearing, while limiting the right to appeal CAS disciplinary proceedings. The new rule encouraging a public proceeding, but allowing for exceptions, went into effect Jan. 1.