Amendments to the Federal Law “On Arbitration” in Force since 29 March 2019

Edvard Munch

Jurisprudence, 1887

Amendments to the Federal Law “On Arbitration” in Force since 29 March 2019

On 29 March 2019, amendments to the Federal Law “On Arbitration (Arbitral Proceedings) in the Russian Federation” are coming into force.

The Russian Arbitration Center has prepared an English translation of the Federal Law “On Arbitration” with the new provisions incorporated.

One of the key developments is the facilitation of requirements for foreign arbitral institutions to obtain an authorization to act as a permanent arbitral institution (PAI) in Russia. The new provisions directly waive the requirement to establish a permanent office of a foreign arbitral institution in Russia for administering international arbitration.

Also,the provisions introduce the list of documents required from a foreign arbitral institution to apply for an authorization, that is significantly shorter than the list required for national arbitral institutions (para 6.2. of Article 44 of the Federal Law “On Arbitration”). In essence, the only criteria for the assessment by the Council for the Development of Arbitration – a body comprising reputable legal practitioners, in-house lawyers, academics and public officials – will be widely recognized international reputation of a foreign arbitral institution (para 12 of Article 44 of the Federal Law “On Arbitration”).

Another group of changes affects the resolution of corporate disputes in arbitration. In particular, to submit to  arbitration the disputes related to the shareholders’ agreements (SHAs), it is not required anymore to conclude arbitration agreement by all the participants of a company, but rather directly by the parties to such a SHA. Also, to arbitrate this category of corporate disputes, it is not required for a PAI to adopt special arbitration rules for corporate disputes, as it was required before 29 March 2019. Such category of disputes is subject to arbitration under the general set of arbitration rules of a PAI.