NEWSLETTER-2020-metin

207 ARBITRATION LAW Voluntary Document Production in Arbitration: Civil-Law Approach* Prof. Dr. H. Ercüment Erdem Introduction 1 The importance of the documents as evidence in an arbitration is undeniable. The parties should be in the position to present the docu- ments that they would like to rely upon in order to prove or defend their cases. Procedural rules applicable to international arbitration, including evidence and document production, remain to be a hot topic due to parties and practitioners belonging to different legal traditions. Since the chances of success mainly depend on whether or not a party can prove its claims, it is crucial for the parties to choose the procedure most suitable for their dispute. When determining the procedure, including evidence and docu- ment production, the parties may choose to adopt a common law ( discovery ) or a civil law ( voluntary production ) approach, depending on the nature of the dispute. Accordingly, the parties may draft their own rules, refer to institutional arbitration rules or procedure laws, or incorporate internationally accepted rules. If the parties fail to come to such an agreement, the applicable procedure will be determined as per the laws of the seat of arbitration. For this reason, it is of signifi- cant importance to understand the civil law perspective on document production. * Article of December, 2020 1 This article is a summary of the report presented at the XIV. Mid-Med Conference organized on-line by the European Court of Arbitration on 26 October 2020.