Arbitration unification

Heads of CIS economic courts are developing uniform rules for punishing violators

The chairmen of the economic courts of the member countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States, who met last Friday in Kazan, called on their governments to establish common “rules of the game” that would make it easier to bring foreign violators to administrative responsibility and simplify the procedure for considering disputes between business entities from different countries CIS. “This is already the sixth meeting of the chairmen of the highest courts that consider disputes in the economic sphere,” Anton Ivanov, chairman of the Supreme Arbitration Court of Russia, explained to Vremya Novostey. Let us note that not all Commonwealth countries were represented at the meeting - the heads of commercial and economic courts of those states that are traditionally considered Russia's closest allies - Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan - gathered in Kazan.

“Among other things, the meeting participants proposed a draft convention on environmental protection so that economic calculations for compensation for damage for violations of environmental safety would be common to all CIS countries,” said Mr. Ivanov. If this agreement was adopted by the Council of Heads of State of the CIS, in the event of such disputes, which inevitably arise, for example, after unsuccessful launches of Russian missiles from Baikonur, the courts of all countries would have the opportunity to equally assess the damage caused to nature.

In addition, the heads of economic courts proposed to their governments to unify the rules on transport expedition contracts, which, as Anton Ivanov explained, would facilitate the creation of a corridor through all CIS member countries. “We also talked about how and to what extent court decisions on bringing foreigners to administrative responsibility should be implemented,” said the chairman of the Supreme Arbitration Court.

The resolutions of the meeting of the highest judges of the CIS are advisory in nature. As Mr. Ivanov explained, “we can advise our authorities, including the council of heads of state of the CIS, to make certain decisions.” For example, after Friday’s meeting, the chairmen of the courts sent for approval a draft agreement on the fee that is levied when organizations from some CIS countries apply to the courts of other Commonwealth states. Now, due to differences in legislation, there is a problem with the return of state fees for court cases: it is quite difficult for a foreigner to return this money from the budget of another state.

“One of the issues discussed at our meeting was the reform of the CIS Economic Court,” the newly elected chairman of this body, Fayzullo Abdulloev, told Vremya Novostey. “The Economic Court is the only international judicial body operating in most of the post-Soviet space, and our task is to make its work more effective.”

Mikhail MOSHKIN, Kazan