English
Etymology
The expression Chinese Wall comes from the Great Wall of China and became a metaphor of barriers, known to go back to the United States stock market crash of 1929. The U.S. government saw the need to maintain separation (or an information barrier) between investment bankers and brokerage firms, to limit the conflict of interest between the two. The first use of Chinese Wall in the general context of keeping confidentiality is unclear.
Noun
en-noun
- idiom A barrier of silence and secrecy.
- idiom businessfinance An established zone of non-communication between distinct sections of a business, in order to prevent conflict of interest. For example, an information barrier inside a firm intended between people who make investment decisions from people who are privy to undisclosed material information, which may influence those decisions.
- rfv-senseidiom computers In computer science, a reverse engineering practice of silent during the testing phase. One group reverse-engineers the original code and writes thorough documentation, while the other group writes new code based only on the new documentation. The first group never writes new code, and the second group never looks at the original code.
- rfv-senseidiom law In law firms, the practice of confidentiality between people working on different or opposite legal interests.
Quotations
1988. Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co. v.Superior Court 200, Cal.App.3d 272, 293-294, 245 Cal.Rptr. 873, 887-888:
:I concur in the opinion of Justice Haning, but write separately to comment on the apparently widespread use of the term "Chinese Wall" to describe the type of screening mechanism discussed in this case. While our opinion uses the term "screen," both the parties and the trial court used the term "Chinese Wall," which seems to have become a term of art. I write to express my profound objection to the use of this phrase in this context.
1980. The Chinese Wall Defense to Law Firm Disqualification 128 U.Pa.L.Rev. 677:
:The enthusiasm for handy phrases of verbal shorthand is understandable. Occasionally, however, lawyers and judges use a term which is singularly inappropriate. "Chinese Wall" is one such piece of legal flotsam which should be emphatically abandoned. The term has an ethnic focus which many would consider a subtle form of linguistic discrimination. Certainly, the continued use of the term would be insensitive to the ethnic identity of the many persons of Chinese descent.
Usage notes
Often considered pejorative.
de:Chinese Wall (Finanzwelt)
|
