Esso Australia Resources Ltd & Ors v The Honourable Sidney James Plowman (The Minister for Energy and Minerals)

Esso Australia Resources Ltd and others sought special leave to appeal to the High Court of Australia concerning the privacy of arbitrations pending between them and the Gas and Fuel Corporation of Victoria and the State Electricity Commission of Victoria. The dispute centred on the extent to which information and documents obtained during these arbitrations could be used by the parties.

The High Court was required to determine the nature of privacy in arbitration proceedings, specifically whether there is a mutual obligation on parties to use information and documents obtained from the opposing party solely for the purposes of the arbitration. This issue had not been previously considered by an Australian court and had been the subject of differing views in English courts, notably the decision in *Dolling-Baker v Merrett*.

The applicants argued that the Full Court below had erred in its determination of the scope of privacy in arbitration. While the Full Court had acknowledged that strangers should be excluded from the arbitration, it had not extended this privacy to limit the use of information and documents obtained during the proceedings. The High Court's consideration focused on establishing whether an implied term of confidentiality or limited use of arbitral materials exists in Australian arbitration law, drawing on the principles discussed in English jurisprudence.