Originally from: Baker & McKenzie International Arbitration Yearbook: 2012-2013

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A. LEGISLATION, TRENDS AND TENDENCIES

A.1 Domestic Legislation

The ability to settle disputes via binding arbitration has been the subject of much uncertainty and controversy in recent years. While the first international arbitration court was established in Kyrgyzstan in December 1994 by the Presidium of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Republic of Kyrgyzstan, in 1997 the Constitutional Court of Kyrgyzstan ruled that activity of this arbitration court contradicted mandatory provisions of the Constitution. Moreover, in 1999 the Supreme Court of the Kyrgyz Republic proposed amendments to the Civil Procedure Code where provisions relating to parties’ rights to solve disputes through arbitration were deleted.

The situation was changed only at the beginning of the twentyfirst century after the adoption in 2002 of the Law on Arbitration Courts (mostly mirroring the UNCITRAL Model Law) and amendments to the Constitution in 2003, which set forth the right of parties to solve civil disputes through arbitration. This legislation created the legal framework for arbitration courts in Kyrgyzstan and was a basis for the re-establishment of the International Arbitration Court of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in 2002.