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Latvia - Arbitration Law and Practice in Central and Eastern Europe

Author(s): 
Ziedonis Udris
Inga Kacevska
Page Count: 
54 pages
Media Description: 
PDF from "Arbitration Law and Practice in Central and Eastern Europe"
Published: 
June, 2006
Jurisdictions: 
Latvia
Practice Areas: 
Right to Decide ex aequo et bono,
Removal and Resignation of Arbitrators,
Challenge of Arbitrators,
Institutional and Administered Arbitration,
Applicable Law,
Arbitral Awards,
Amendments and Rectification,
Arbitral Process,
Agreement to Arbitrate,
Separability,
Termination,
Costs and Damages,
Arbitration Fees,
Jurisdiction and Powers of the Courts in Matters of Arbitration Generally,
Recourse Against Award Generally,
Enforcement of Arbitral Awards,
Interim Measures of Protection,
Third Parties in Arbitral Proceedings,
Evidence,
National Legislation,
New York Convention
Author Detail: 

Ziedonis Udris (Latvia) is the Chairman of the Council of Arbitration of the Latvian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and a Managing Partner of the Law Office Skudra & Udris.

Inga Kačevska (Latvia) is Attorney at Law in the Law Office of Skudra & Udris.

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Description: 

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 Saeima (Parliament) of the Republic of Latvia passed a new Civil Procedure Law (“CPL”) on 14 October 1998, which became effective on 1 March 1999. Chapter D of the CPL deals with arbitration. The latest amendments have been adopted by the Parliament of Latvia and became effective on 10 March 2005 in order to improve the procedure governing the activities and control of arbitral institutions. As a result of such amendments, two new regulations were introduced by the Cabinet of Ministers, namely, “On the Register of Arbitration Institutions”1 and “On the State Fee for Entering the Arbitration Institution in the Register,2 which determines the proper procedure in accordance with which arbitration institutions shall be registered in the Enterprise Register. Previously, any new arbitral institution had to notify the Ministry of Justice, which maintained the list of arbitral institutions. No other limitations were set forth and therefore approximately 128 arbitral institutions were on the list of the Ministry of Justice3 before the enactment of these amendments.

In accordance with the new amendments, all arbitral institutions that are on the list of the Ministry of Justice shall be registered with the Enterprise Register until 15 August 2005.4 After that date, the following rule applies: if the parties have agreed to settle their dispute through a permanent arbitral institution and this institution has not been registered with the Enterprise Register or has terminated its operation, the parties shall agree to settle the dispute in another registered arbitral institution and if such agreement is not achieved, the dispute shall be settled in court.5