The process of globalization takes place all over the world. Due to this fact more and more opportunities appear for the development of business on international level. However, it follows that the increase of both international and domestic commercial disputes is inevitable.
The disputing parties of international business agreements often derive from diverse cultural and legal traditions. Since they lack information about the peculiarities of civil proceedings in national courts and avoid publicity of public proceedings, they are often willing to bypass the litigation in the state courts.
Arbitration is a way for solving disputes when natural or legal persons on the grounds of mutual agreement entrust the resolution of their dispute to the third neutral party (arbitrators) instead of state courts.
The process of arbitration is more flexible than state civil proceedings – the parties may agree on the language, place, number of arbitrators, the nominating order thereof, as well as the governing law to solve the dispute, etc. The arbitration procedure may consume less time and cost than the litigation in national courts.
The arbitration awards are recognized and may be enforced in the territory of more than 160 states of the World that are the members of United Nations Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (New York, 10 June 1958).
Vilnius Court of Commercial Arbitration (VCCA) – is an attractive alternative to solve both national and international commercial disputes in a confidential way.
Vilnius Court of Commercial Arbitration was established as a result of the reorganization of the two arbitration institutions. In 2003, two main Lithuanian permanent arbitration institutions – the Arbitration Court at the Association International Chamber of Commerce Lithuania and the Vilnius International Commercial Arbitration were merged into the VCCA.
The founders of the VCCA are:
- Association INFOBALT
- Association of Lithuanian Chambers of Commerce, Industry and Crafts
- Lithuanian Business Confederation
- Association of Lithuanian Banks
- Lithuanian Confederation of Industrialists
- Lithuanian National Road Carriers’ Association “Linava”
- Lithuanian Lawyers’ Association
VCCA Platform ARBIS – a secure arbitration case management system online. 24 hours a day you will be able in the portal www.arbis.lt to:
- view the information of the cases in which you are a party/representative to the arbitration proceedings;
- familiarize with the arbitration processes;
- form and deliver the procedural documents to the Arbitral Tribunal and VCCA;
- fill in the documents according to the prepared forms;
- receive notices about the admission of the documents, the discovered errors, the hearings of the arbitration case and other information.
It is recommended that parties wishing to refer resolution of their disputes to the VCCA (Vilnius Court of Commercial Arbitration) should use standard arbitration clause without modifications:
In English:
„Any dispute, arising out of or relating to this contract, shall be finally settled by arbitration in the Vilnius Court of Commercial Arbitration in accordance with its Rules of Arbitration.
All procedural documents shall be served via parties‘ e-mails …(please indicate e-mails of each party to the contract).
The number of arbitrators shall be … .
The place of arbitration shall be … .
The language of arbitration shall be … .
The law of … shall be applicable to the dispute.“
In Lithuanian:
„Kiekvienas ginčas, kylantis iš šios sutarties ar su ja susijęs, galutinai sprendžiamas arbitražu Vilniaus komercinio arbitražo teisme pagal Arbitražo procedūros reglamentą.
Visi procesiniai dokumentai šalims bus siunčiami elektroniniu paštu šiais adresais …(nurodyti kiekvienos šalies el. pašto adresus).
Arbitražo teismo arbitrų bus ………. (vienas arba trys).
Arbitražo vieta – ………. (miestas, valstybė).
Arbitražiniame procese bus vartojama ………. kalba.
Ginčui taikytina … (valstybė) materialinė teisė.“
In Russian:
“Любой спор, возникший из настоящего договора или с ним связанный, окончательно решается посредством арбитража в Вильнюсском коммерческом арбитражном суде по Регламенту арбитражной процедуры.
Все процессуальные документы сторонам вручаются посредством электронной почты по следующим адресам … (указать эл. почту каждой из сторон договора).
Арбитражный суд должен состоять из ………. (указать число) арбитров.
Место арбитража – ………. (указать город и государство).
Язык, на котором будет осуществляться арбитражный процесс … (указать язык).
К разрешению спора применимо право … (указать государство).”
More about VCCA http://www.arbitrazas.lt