Lithuania - Arbitration Law and Practice in Central and Eastern Europe
Emilis Cicenas (Lithuania) is an Attorney with Lideika, Petrauskas, Valiunas ir partneriai LAWIN.
Vilija Vaitkutė Pavan (Lithuania) is an Associate Partner with the law firm Lideika, Petrauskas, Valiūnas ir partneriai LAWIN in Vilnius, Lithuania. She is a member of the International Court of Arbitration of the ICC.
Originally from Arbitration Law and Practice in Central and Eastern Europe
1. GENERAL LEGAL FRAMEWORK
1.1 National law
a) Current status
What is the current status? When was it enacted? Have there already been amendments?
The main legislation regarding commercial arbitration in Lithuania is the Law on Commercial Arbitration, which was adopted on 2 April 1996 and which entered into force on 2 May 1996. Article 1 of the Law on Commercial Arbitration was amended on 13 March 2001.1 The Law on Commercial Arbitration is mainly based on the UNCITRAL Model Law. The Law on Commercial Arbitration regulates the legal relations between parties who have agreed to settle existing or future disputes by way of arbitration, as well as arbitral proceedings, the making and enforcement of arbitral awards, the authority of courts of the Republic of Lithuania within the sphere of arbitration, and other relations pertaining to arbitration. According to the Law on Commercial Arbitration, a commercial dispute is a dispute between parties arising out of contractual or non-contractual legal relations, but not a dispute that may not be submitted to arbitration. The following are considered non-arbitrable disputes: disputes arising out of constitutional, employment, family or administrative legal relations; disputes related to competition law, patents, trademarks and service marks, and bankruptcy; and disputes arising out of consumer contracts.