#9-10 September-October 2021

In focus – International Arbitration and Alternative Dispute Resolution

Being the bread and butter practice area for legal counsel all over the world, the dispute resolution practice spans litigation, arbitration and alternative methods. The growing number of arbitration requests, development of its centers and rules provided for increasing the level of trust of both parties dealing with commercial and investment disputes. Investment disputes are customarily a burning issue for Ukraine, indicating the credibility of commitments undertaken by the state and the attractiveness of the nation’s business environment.

Expert Opinion

Changes to Arbitration Rules During the Pandemic

by Olena Perepelynska

International arbitration has historically developed together with international trade and their correlation and mutual impact have many interesting angles. After exponential growth of both during the era of expanding globalism we are now witnessing the effects of rising nationalism. In international arbitration we are seeing multiple changes at local level in many jurisdictions: growth of the arbitration community, reforms of arbitration-related legislation, creation of new arbitral institutions and development of existing local arbitration centers aiming to become/remain regional arbitration hubs. All these factors have resulted in tightening competition among arbitral institutions and instigated them to promptly adapt their rules and practices to changing reality and the challenges of our time. During the last two years COVID-19 has accelerated many institutional changes, both related and unrelated to the pandemic. Certain changes, those most relevant for Ukrainian business, are considered in this article.

Olena Perepelynska is a partner, head of International Arbitration at INTEGRITES

In Re

Enforcement of Foreign Interim Measures in Ukraine

by Andrey Bychkov, Roman Protsyshyn

It is not uncommon for claimants in commercial disputes to face recalcitrant debtors deliberately dissipating their assets to render themselves judgment-proof or taking other steps aimed at complicating, or even making impossible, enforcement of a future judgment or arbitral award.

To avoid the risk of actual recovery of the claim being ultimately thwarted, various interim measures designed to preserve the status quo come into play, allowing an aggrieved party to secure enforcement of a judgment or arbitral award if made in its favour. This instrument also ensures that the successful party’s efforts and costs of running litigation or arbitration are not wasted. Thus, the importance of interim measures cannot be overstated.

Andrey Bychkov is a counsel, attorney at law at Ilyashev & Partners

Roman Protsyshyn is an attorney at law at Ilyashev & Partners

The New ADR Tool from the Stockholm Arbitration Institute: Will Advantages Outweigh?

by Ivan Vashchynets

Alternative dispute resolution, or ADR, exists in a wide variety of forms. The traditional types of ADR are negotiation, mediation, and arbitration. All of them are aimed at resolving disputes in an informal, confidential, and efficient manner. Individuals and companies have, at various times, tried to combine the advantages of different types of ADR to solve their disputes more effectively. However, the resulting hybrid forms of ADR have not always been successful.

Ivan Vashchynets is a partner at ARBITRADE

News

Deals

Sayenko Kharenko advised on second USD 50 million Eurobond tap issue by Trans-Oil Group

CMS advised Vodafone Ukraine

Sayenko Kharenko provided legal support for PGNiG

INTEGRITES assisted Sturgeon Capital

Cases

Apple deprived of monopoly on payments for applications

Сourt in Netherlands recognized Uber taxi drivers as employees

Shell to pay Nigeria USD 111 million for oil spill in 1970s

Privatbank Eurobond bail-in: ruling by Bank of England now conclusive

WhatsApp fined EUR 225 million in Ireland for violating privacy rules

Draft

Thousands of companies to be obliged to pay insurance on environmental damage

Draft registered in Parliament on abolition of Economic Code of Ukraine

Parliament adopted law in first reading guaranteeing rights to real estate under construction

Law digest

Zelensky signed laws on development of ecologically friendly transport

Parliament approved simultaneous transfer of right to land and real estate

Parliament legalized virtual currencies in Ukraine

Industrial parks re-launch: Parliament adopted law

The chamber

AmCham Ukraine shortlisted for European Creative Network Award 2021

Biznews

M&A

The Road to Recovery: European M&A Outlook 2022

PayPal acquires Paidy for USD 2.7 billion

Swiss company “subsidiary” invests USD 40 million in Chornomorsk Port

Monobank acquired service to combine restaurant payments and reviews

Rankings

World Bank to stop publishing Doing Business rating

Investment

Ukrainian startup GitLab set to go public, market valuation exceeds USD 6 billion

Google invests EUR 1 billion in cloud services and renewable energy in Germany

Cover Story

Attractive Alternative

Litigation is both an expensive and time-consuming undertaking. Ukrainian legislation allows the mechanism of alternative dispute settlement, which certainly has its predicted benefits. However, it is not a widespread tradition as in the Western world. Oleg Malinevskiy, partner of EQUITY Law Firm, explained that the instruments of alternative dispute resolution have wider potential and should definitely be reinstated for both parties and their legal representatives.

Argument

Ukraine – Wood Products: Ukraine Lost First Free Trade Dispute with EU

by Oleksandr Tereshchenko

On 11 December 2020, the Arbitration Panel (Panel) issued the Report on restrictions applied by Ukraine on exports of certain wood products to the European Union (EU). The Panel was established pursuant to Article 307 of the EU-Ukraine Association/Free Trade Agreement (Agreement).

The dispute concerned wood export bans imposed by Ukraine in 2005 and 2015. The EU requested to declare that 2005 and 2015 wood export bans were inconsistent with Article 35 of the Agreement and that Ukraine is required to take measures to comply with those obligations. Ukraine requested to reject the EU’s claim as inadmissible for lack of jurisdiction of the Panel and reject the EU’s claims on their merits.

Oleksandr Tereshchenko is an attorney-at-law at Aequo

Hot Issue

Recent Ukrainian Case Law on Trade Defence Remedies: “Hidden Reefs” to Be Taken into Account

by Anzhela Makhinova, Oleksandra Sandul

The year 2020 demonstrated that trade defence remedies (anti-dumping, countervailing and safeguards) were used around the globe to protect domestic markets most frequently. The above measures shall apply only following the results of the relevant preliminary investigation. Unfortunately, both WTO Agreements and the Laws of Ukraine1 do not regulate the procedure for conducting such investigations in sufficient detail. Therefore, the decisions of the Interdepartmental Commission on International Trade (government agency responsible for the application of the key decisions in the course of trade defence proceedings) (the “Commission”), as well as approaches of the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine (government agency responsible for procedural aspects of investigations) are quite often challenged in Ukrainian courts. This article is focused on the most recent case law setting out benchmark interpretations of the different aspects of trade defence investigations in Ukraine.

Anzhela Makhinova is a partner, head of international trade practice at Sayenko Kharenko

Oleksandra Sandul is a junior associate, international trade practice at Sayenko Kharenko

Crux

Legal Digest

In the last few months the UJBL editorial team has been monitoring all significant legal initiatives that shouldn’t go unnoticed. The most important novelties are the Law On Virtual Assets and the Draft Law On Securing Property Rights to Real Estate that will be Constructed in the Future, that has finally been adopted. Several draft laws on energy (like No. 5494) and taxation (No. 5600), also have great potential to be adopted and are definitely worth your attention. We asked prominent lawyers to share their points of view on these and other matters.
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