Association of Arbitration Courts

Due to the lack of a legal basis for arbitration courts, a lot of problems and hurdles regarding the development and implementation of arbitration courts existed until the adoption of the Presidential Decree No. 3619 ”On measures for further improving the system of legal protection of enterprise entities” of 2005. According to this Decree, the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Uzbekistan, the Ministry of Justice of Uzbekistan, the High Economic Court of Uzbekistan and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Uzbekistan were engaged in the creation of the legal project on “arbitration courts”.

The Association of Arbitration Courts of Uzbekistan (AACU) was created in Uzbekistan in May 2009 to facilitate the creation, development and support of arbitration courts in the country, to provide the protection of the rights and legal interests of the arbitrators,¹⁶³ as well as to assist in providing the necessary instructional literature on arbitration courts. Today there are one High Qualification Commission, five authorities and four departments at the AACU and they function in particular directions in regard to the activities of arbitration courts.¹⁶⁴ From the first years of its creation, the AACU began to establish its representative offices in regions of Uzbekistan. The representative offices of AACU are registered as legal entities at the departments of the Ministry of Justice in the regions.¹⁶⁵

Another perspective of the Association is seen in the establishment of the Academy of Arbitration Courts (a non-state educational institute) at the AACU. It has been established in 2010 for professional training of arbitrators and for the improvement of professional skills of

163 Dolimov (supra n. 149), p. 230.

164 Ibid.

165 The first representative offices of the AACU were registered in the regions Bukhara, Samarqand and Surkhandarya.

staff in conducting office-work in arbitration courts. It is important here to mention that the

“International Relations Department” at the AACU and the Academy cooperate with international organizations and non-state, non-commerce organizations in order to realize the objectives of the Academy of Arbitration Courts.¹⁶⁶

In the first half of 2012, a number of law propagation activities were conducted by the Association of Arbitration Courts. For example, there were organized 681 scientific and practical conferences, seminars and round tables, 4,292 conversations and reports among the population. 5,153 citizens were consulted individually and the arbitrators of the Association participated in 363 events organized by local government authorities. 277 materials were placed in the media: 110 articles were published, 91 speeches on the radio and 76 TV appearances were made.¹⁶⁷

The above-mentioned measures positively impacted the increase of the arbitration courts’

activities. This is confirmed by the fact that in 2011, 7,852 lawsuits were reviewed of over $ 80 billion soums, which is significantly higher than the indicators of previous years. In the first half of 2011, 2,871 statements of claims in the amount of 26.4 billion soums were reviewed by the arbitration courts represented by the AACU Association and in in the first half of 2012, 5,452 claims (189% compared to 2011) were reviewed in amount of 38.5 billion soums (145%

compared to 2011).¹⁶⁸

166 Personal interviews in September-October 2014 witharbitrators of Bukhara and the chairman of the AACU (Bukhara Department).According to interview sources, in 2010 the AACU in cooperation with the OSCE Project Co-ordinator has carried out the Project “On improvement of qualifications of arbitrators of Uzbekistan”. In 2011, the International Scientific Conference on International Commercial Arbitration was organized in cooperation with the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Uzbekistan. In turn, in the same year the chairmen of leading Arbitration Centres and Courts of Uzbekistan participated in the international conferences held in France and Belgium and exchanged their experience.

167 At present the Law Propagation and Media Authority at the AACU conducts activities concerning with introducing arbitration courts in Uzbekistan, propagating knowledge of the Law “On Arbitration Courts” among the general public and increasing the trust of entrepreneurs in the arbitration system directly or through mass media.

168 This figure has been obtained from several interview sources during the researcher’s trip in September-October 2014 and is believed to be a rough estimate.

37

Table 3: Information activities of the Bukhara region Arbitration Court under the Bukhara Department of the AACU in August 2014¹⁶⁹

No. Events Number of events Times of events

1 Round tables and lectures for ordinary citizens

64 12 August at 14:00 2 TV programs

3 Radio programs

4 Articles in newspapers 1

5 Scientific-practical conferences and seminars

2 5 August at 15:00 6 Personal meetings with

citizens

78 daily

7 Participation of Court’s members in events held by the government

2 Bukhara region and city, government office hours

Totally 147

Source: The author.

169 The data were obtained from the Bukhara region Arbitration Court under the Bukhara Department of the AACU during the researcher’s trip in September-October 2014.

Table 4: Cases treated by the Bukhara Arbitration Courts under the Bukhara Department of the AACU in August 2014 No. Arbitration

Courts

Name and surname of the arbitrator

Hearings on the merits

From this

Information activities

Number Amount By a sole arbitrator By a panel TV Radio Newspaper Subscription Lecture Round tables Seminar Conference

1 Court under the Bukhara Department

M.F.

Hasanovich

85 822 000 000 95 3 61

2 Bukhara city Kh.B. Mavlonov 2 120 000 000 3 1 6

3 Bukhara city O.G. Avazov 2 80 000 000 2 1 4

4 Bukhara city Z.R. Ruziyev 2 65 000 000 2 1 10

5 Peshku region

Kh.S. Davlatov 3 47 500 000 3 1 14

6 Gijduvon region

S.B. Jamoatov 7 Romitan

region

Kh.S. Davlatov 45 89 500 000 4 2 15

8 Jondor region

V.K. Kazakov 3 74 500 000 3 1 10

9 Olot region O.N. Kandimov 4 86 300 000 2 1 9

10 Korovul-bozor region

Kh.R. Fayziyev 6 260 000 000 3 1 11

Totally 152 744 800 000 117 12 140

Source: The author.

2.5. International Commercial Arbitration Court (ICAC) at the Chamber of Commerce