On March 17, 2017 the International Commercial Arbitration Court at the Ukrainian CCI jointly with Vasil Kisil and Partners hosted the conference “International Arbitration: Emerging Changes” in Kyiv, Ukraine. Around 250 international arbitration practitioners from the USA, Europe and Ukraine, as well as business representatives, gathered to discuss the recent trends in commercial and investment arbitration. The conference was conducted under the aegis of the UNCITRAL and raised discussions on recent developments in international arbitration, provisional measures and security for cost in arbitration, particularly active one on disputes about the Ukrainian assets in Crimea and Donbas, and last, but not least, diversity and equality in international arbitration.

Pavlo Petrenko, Minister of Justice of Ukraine while opening the conference noted: “Arbitration is one of the most important instruments to protect Ukrainian business and private investors that suffered from illegal annexation of the Crimea and illegal capturing of enterprises on the territories of Donbas. We witness first precedents under the claims of private Ukrainian investors. Having examined these claims, the respective institutes of the international arbitration have proved that the aggressor country that captured the territory should be responsible for investments and private capital”.

Corinne Montineri, Legal Officer of UNCITRAL, keynote speaker of the conference noted: “UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules have been used for solving disputes between private parties, but also in the context of investor-States, and even State-to-State dispute settlement. The first departure from this approach was when UNCITRAL adopted the standards on transparency in treaty based investor-State arbitration. For the first time, we have adopted standards specific to a specific type of arbitration, investment arbitration. And these standards are clearly tailored for investment arbitration. They take into account the need of the public to be informed and the need of parties to have an efficient resolution if their dispute”.

Mykola Selivon, President of the International Commercial Arbitration Court at the Ukrainian CCI while delivering his speech dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the ICAC noted: “ICAC awards are successfully enforced in 110 countries of the world. 2.5% of the ICAC awards are contested in average by the parties, against whom the awards were rendered, and about only 1% of them is set aside. Such an insignificant number of contested awards shows how the court works, i.e., it treats cases in an impartial and unbiased way, even if the party who lost the case is not morally satisfied with the arbitration proceedings. Each year parties involved in proceedings instituted by ICAC are in average from 50 to 55 countries, of which 42 to 46 are non-CIS countries and 8 are CIS countries and Ukraine”.

Vasil Kisil, Senior Partner with Vasil Kisil and Partners in his welcoming speech has stressed on the importance of clear procedure of implementation of arbitral decisions.

Oleg Alyoshin, Partner and Head of the International Arbitration practice at Vasil Kisil & Partners pointed out: “The conference has become an essential event to promote Ukraine as arbitration friendly jurisdiction and stressed the importance of international arbitration as an effective dispute resolution instrument in conflict times. Students, future arbitration lawyers, have also benefited from the event significantly. Ukrainian Vis Pre-moot participants received a unique chance to have world-known international arbitrators during their national rounds”.

Academics and practitioners with leading names in arbitration worldwide have spoken at the conference on Friday. Among them: Patricia Shaughnessy, Vice Chairperson SCC, Stockholm University; Ulrich G. Schroeter, University of Basel (Switzerland); Yuliya Chernykh, Arbitrator at the ICAC and MAC, University of Oslo (Norway); Stephan Wilske, Partner, Gleiss Lutz (Germany); Kristoffer Löf, Partner, Mannheimer Swartling (Sweden); Scott Vesel, Partner, Three Crowns (UK); Laurence Burger, FCIArb, Chair, CIArb European Branch, Partner, Landolt & Koch (Switzerland); Luis Gonzalez Garcia, Matrix Chambers (UK); Kaj Hobér, Chairperson, Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce (Sweden); James Freeman, Counsel, Allen & Overy (UK); Anton Doudko, Consel, White & Case (UK); Carita Wallgren-Lindholm, Vice-Chair of the ICC Commission on Arbitration and ADR (Finland); Juliet Blanch, Independent Arbitrator (UK); Irina Tymczyszyn, Partner, Chadbourne & Park (UK); Patrizia Netal, Partner, Knoetzel, Director of the Annual Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot (Austria).

To see presentations follow the link.

To see photos follow the link.

Kyiv became the center for the world-known international arbitration practitioners on March 17, 2017