Business class justice

June 01, 2007

Uzbekistan has created legal foundations for the efficient activity of arbitration. The mechanism of practicing the opportunities which arbitration provides for entrepreneurs and lawyers of the country is very successful. When Oliy Majlis (parliament) of Uzbekistan passed the law "On arbitration", the parallel judicial system, arbitration, began to develop intensively in the country. Today this non-governmental court has really acting mechanism for coercive execution of its decisions.

According to Shamil Asyanov, Head of Arbitration under the Center for the Study of Legal Problems, "there is an effective mechanism of execution writ that makes complainants feel more confident. If a defendant did not execute arbitration's decision before, the competent court used to refuse the execution writ because there was no ground for satisfaction of request".

"The participants of arbitration evaluated the advantage of alternative form of resolving economic disputes", believes Mirkobil Mahmudov, Head of arbitration under the Samarkand regional Bar Association. The disputing sides set the panel of judges and each of them includes their representatives and manufacture experts, he adds.

From the beginning of 2007 the arbitration of Samarkand region has considered over hundred disputes among businessmen and some of them concerning farmers. The arbitrations determine independently the examination time and unlike the state courts they do not experience procedure difficulties. They may fulfill the disputing sides' requests such as choosing the place of court examination (for instance, in another city), its time and etc. The state bodies, regional branches of Ministry of Justice, Chamber of Commerce and Industry and state courts of Uzbekistan support the development of arbitrations in the country.

There are 16 arbitrations in the Republic.Arbitrations of Tashkent, Samarkand, Andijan, Khorezm and Nukus have increased thier authority for a short period of time. The Uzbek parliament is actively establishing necessary legislation for arbitration simultaneously expanding its network. The legislative chamber adopted the law "On introducing amendments to the Codes of Uzbekistan on Civil Procedure and Economic Procedure" due to adoption of law "On arbitration". At present, Oliy Majlis is developing the draft law "On international commercial arbitration". This law is promoted to regulate the activity of arbitrations whose panel judges will include foreign citizens. The law will improve the image of Uzbek arbitration in foreign business circles.