Beyond Billions of Dollars

International arbitration has definitely become an industry that functions according to market rules. Arbitration institutions compete for potential users and adopt new rules to become more attractive. These entail development of appropriate arbitration infrastructure and arbitration centers have got used to benefiting from being so-called hubs. Arbitration-friendly jurisdictions usually enjoy a high level of rule of law.

Business in Ukraine got used to avoiding jurisdiction for a number of reasons. The absence of credibility towards the court system is one of the most important ones. Despite significant advance in our country’s attitude to the enforcement of arbitral awards, Ukraine still remains rather unfriendly to arbitration.

As today’s international arbitration landscape shows, recent cases go beyond billion of dollars… They reflect political and economic crosscurrents and the fight for oil and gas is particularly tense.

The sound Yukos case and appeals by Naftogaz of Ukraine and Russian monopolist Gazprom to Stockholm Arbitration proved this statement. And so energy considerations framed the discussion of the expert panel this month.

Happy reading,
Olga Usenko