Russian international arbitration legislation is expected to be modified in the near future.
The Russian law governing international arbitration, entitled the Law on International Commercial Arbitration, dates from 1993 and was drafted largely on the basis of the the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Model Law 1985, with minor variations.
Largely due to the perception that international arbitration has been fraudulently used in cases taking place at the hundreds of arbitral institutions across Russia that organize international and domestic arbitrations, there have been growing calls for the reform of the Law on International Commercial Arbitration since the UNCITRAL Model Law was revised in 2006.
If passed in its present form, the modified arbitration law will propose a number of modifications to Russian arbitration law, impacting both domestic and international arbitrations:
- Modifications to the formation of arbitration agreements made through the exchange of electronic correspondence;
- Optional arbitration clauses will be allowed, which was not previously the case;
- Rules with respect to the regulation of corporate disputes involving multiple parties will only be possible before arbitration institutions that have adopted certain rules;
- Corporate disputes involving public prerogatives, such as the registration of businesses, will be inarbitrable;
- Rules governing the registration of arbitration institutions based in Russia, such as new requirements for arbitration institutions to be non-profit organizations and to be registered with the Ministry of justice, will be put into place;
- Certain minimum requirements with respect to who can be appointed as an arbitrator, such as the requirement that arbitrators have law degrees, will be put into place;
- Parties with international arbitrations having their seat in Russia will now be allowed to exclude the possibility of applying to set aside arbitral awards;
- Foreign awards will be recognized in Russia without further enforcement proceedings, when provided for by way of an international treaty;
- The party opposing the enforcement of an arbitration award must object to it within one month of learning about the arbitration award.
To learn more, please see the article below.
– William Kirtley