Originally from American Review of International Arbitration - ARIA

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 I. INTRODUCTION

Since 1992, international commercial arbitration in the Ukraine has been conducted by the International Commercial Arbitration Court (the “ICAC”) at the Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (the “UCCI”). The UCCI also hosts the Maritime Arbitration Commission (the “MAC”). The ICAC is an independent, permanent arbitral institution that carries out its functions in conformity with the Law of the Ukraine on International Commercial Arbitration (the “Law”),[1] the Statute on the ICAC at the UCCI (the “Statute”),[2] and the Rules of the ICAC at the UCCI (the “Rules”).[3] The Law is based on the UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration (the “Model Law”), but departs from the Model Law in some aspects in order to be better suited to the situation in the Ukraine. The current Rules were adopted in 1994.

The creation of the ICAC was based on the provisions of the European Convention on International Commercial Arbitration (1961). This convention has had great significance for and influence on international commercial arbitration and is the basis for national legislation not only in the Ukraine, but in several other countries as well. Incidentally, this explains why, from a Ukrainian point of view, the changes to the Convention that are presently discussed in the UN/ECE need to be considered very carefully.

The ICAC is the first international court of arbitration in the history of the Ukraine as an independent state. After eight full years of practice, it is now possible to speak about the history of creation and development of the ICAC, and to draw conclusions with regard to the practice of the court.