Very often the Armenian business men do not pay attention to the fact which court shall solve the disputes if they occur. Sometimes the foreign partners mention the Stockholm or London arbitration courts. However those courts do not the cases referring to the disputes on the amounts less than one million euros.

“In cases where the contracts indicate the mentioned courts, this shall mean that the case cannot be solved in the Permanently Acting Arbitration Court at Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the RA,” Arayik Vardanyan, Executive Director of the RA Chamber of Commerce and Industry said.

The organizers of the Conference on Commercial Arbitration are The German Foundation for International Legal Cooperation (IRZ), the Armenian Young lawyers association and the RA Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The event is aimed to refer to the problems and development of the sphere.

“The problem is contemporary, as we have the goal to introduce the ways of the alternative dispute resolution to the business community,” Karen zadoyan, President of the Armenian Young lawyers Association noted. Unlike the state courts, the cases in arbitration courts are resolved quickly and at more cost, however they cannot be appealed, as it is in the state courts. 

“The arbitration courts have an important role in the improving the conditions of economic life. Here it is necessary to be very flexible, more flexible than the state courts are,” Constantin Zelenty, the third secretary of the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Armenia said.

Teresa Thalhammer, Head of South Caucasus Section of IRZ attached importance to the organization of the conference and introduced the mission of the Foundation, which has been working in Armenia for two years already.

“This event is completely in line with the context of the legal reforms, which the Ministry of Justice has undertaken based upon the instruction of the President of the Republic of Armenia, which approved the key program of the judicial reforms for 2012-2016. And among the others including the judiciary reforms, the legal reforms as well as the reforms in the sphere of the services provided to the population, mush importance is attached to the development of the mechanisms for alternative dispute resolution,” Yegishe Kirakosyan, Deputy Minister of Justice mentioned.

Thomas Klich, Advocate from the German Institution of Arbitration (DIS), Representatives from the the RA Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Armenian Young Lawyers Association spoke at the conference as well.

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