Do Gagging Clauses Need to be Gagged?

摘要

Non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) are used widely in business and commercial life. They enable information to be exchanged in a protected environment. They are also used to compromise disputes, particularly those between employers and their employees. But in recent years they have become synonymous with the settlement of disputes where allegations of serious misconduct have, in effect, been suppressed. Legal regulation of how non-disclosure agreements, and of those who draft and negotiate them, is ineffective, but any reform has to take a balanced view of the benefits as well as the potential for the misuse of these agreements.