Cooperation and Secret protection in the civil process

The work examines the tension between the duties of cooperation and secrecy interests in civil litigation. The starting point is the lack of evidence, in which one of the parties is unable or hardly able to fulfil its burden of assertion and proof in the trial. The opponent, on the other hand, is able to clarify or cooperate. The aim of civil proceedings is to establish the material truth. The parties are obliged to support each other in this process. The provisions of the civil proceedings provide a sufficient basis for comprehensively justifying a procedural duty to cooperate. However, the duty to cooperate presupposes that such cooperation is also reasonable for the parties. The exceptions and limits of the cooperation obligations are examined from the point of view of the protection of company secrets. The work shows here the connection between the duties of cooperation and the interest in secrecy. The concept of trade secrets is examined in more detail and discussed as the limit of the civil procedural obligation to cooperate. The procedural protection of trade secrets is incomplete because it is limited to parts of the evidence procedure and is partly characterised by a rigid weighing of interests. The conflict between information and secrecy interests should be resolved as far as possible by a "protected exploitation" of secrets. It should be possible for the secret to be exploited by the court in court. At the same time, the secret should be protected from the opponent and from third parties. Here the investigation also deals with questions of the legal hearing. First of all, the requirements of the European Convention on Human Rights and Union law are examined. Subsequently, the design of the protected exploitation of company secrets in accordance with applicable law will be worked out, both with regard to protection against third parties and protection against the other party. The work illuminates the problems of the public, the inspection of files and the participation rights of the parties. The following are proposals for legal policy solutions to improve procedural protection. A generally valid approach is worked out which takes into account the enforcement of the law, the protection of secrets and also the right to be heard. The use of a representative appointed by the court ("secrecy curator") is intended to enable the protected exploitation of secrets while safeguarding the opponent`s right to be heard.