Originally from Between East and West: Essays in Honour of Ulf Franke

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Eighteen years ago, the political and economic transformations in Eastern Europe dramatically changed the picture of the whole world. Indeed, the dissolution of the socialist world has much influenced the political, economic, and legal development of mankind. The USSR, formerly one of the biggest States, has disappeared and been replaced by new independent States. The new States and the renewed Eastern European community have taken a step forward towards the international market and unified systems of economic and legal being.

Western European countries and the USA faced rapid development of the Eastern European community, which initiated a new round in the global development of all major institutions of contemporary international public and private life in all spheres of the economy, political and social life, international law, and trade. The latter have been much influenced as a great number of various players have entered the international foreign trade community.

Development of foreign trade with certainty entails development of alternative dispute resolution methods, as the latter are the most acceptable and widely-used method of resolving international commercial disputes. For Eastern European countries, their participation in the European Convention on International Commercial Arbitration (Geneva, 1961) and the New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards of 1958 have played a great role in ensuring smooth and rapid transition to the international arbitration system.

Within quite a short period after the collapse of the socialist system, the Eastern European countries updated their legislation in the sphere of international arbitration. In the newly-announced independent CIS countries, such legislation was adopted and new permanent international arbitration courts were established. From that time on, for business people from such countries as Russia and Ukraine it is no longer necessary to keep in mind only Stockholm, London, or Paris for international arbitration.