ADR in Belarus: Recent Developments Alexey Anischenko Tamara Sakolchyk Vilnius, Lithuania

ESTONIA LATVIA LITHUANIA BELARUS 2 General Background  Dual court system: ordinary (civil) and commercial courts with no single Supreme instance  Relatively cheap and very fast state courts (1-2 months in the 1 st instance, 6-9 months for all instances)

ESTONIA LATVIA LITHUANIA BELARUS 3 Past  No ADR until August 2008, save for arbitration, primarily international, not much tolerated by state courts  Heavy caseload, particularly in commercial courts (>1000 cases per year)

ESTONIA LATVIA LITHUANIA BELARUS 4 Present  More than 60,000 in-court conciliations  More than 75% settled  Around 90% executed voluntarily  Successful trial project with out-of-court conciliators  ADR friendly environment

ESTONIA LATVIA LITHUANIA BELARUS 5 Step-by-step  Concept of optimization of rules on commercial procedure  Chapter 17 of the Code on Commercial Procedure (in-court conciliation)  Experiment with out-of court conciliators  Law on [domestic] Arbitration  Draft Law on Mediation (3 revisions over 2 years) – 2012

ESTONIA LATVIA LITHUANIA BELARUS Stakeholders  Working Group: –Supreme Commercial Court –Supreme Court –National Center for Legislation and Legal Research  Interested state bodies –Presidential Administration –Committee of State Control –Ministry of Justice –General Prosecutor’s Office  Legal community 6

ESTONIA LATVIA LITHUANIA BELARUS 7 Critical issues  Level of “juridization”  Types of dispute eligible for mediation  Level of state control: –Qualification requirements –Qualification process –Organization forms of mediation activity –Mediation rules and codes of ethics  Agreement to mediate  Settlement agreement

ESTONIA LATVIA LITHUANIA BELARUS Risk 8

ESTONIA LATVIA LITHUANIA BELARUS Key factors  Positive experience with in-court conciliation  Russian Law of Mediation  EU Mediation Directive  Lack of specific knowledge among stakeholders  Human Factor (personal + professional interest; choosing the right path) 9

ESTONIA LATVIA LITHUANIA BELARUS 10 Perspectives  2 nd reading in the Parliament (Upper Chamber) – Winter 2012  Signing by the President  6 months for implementation

Estonia Pärnu mnt Tallinn, Estonia phone fax Latvia Kr. Valdemāra iela 21 LV-1010 Riga, Latvia phone fax Lithuania Jogailos 4 LT Vilnius, Lithuania phone fax Belarus ul Nemiga Minsk, Belarus phone fax ESTONIA LATVIA LITHUANIA BELARUS Thank you! Tamara Sakolchyk Associate phone mobile