The International Arbitration Court at the LIA is competent in solving civil and commercial disputes, including disputes arising from interpretations or filling gaps in contracts, as well as their adaptation to new circumstances.v

Among all extrajudicial methods for settlement of disputes, mediation and arbitration are most widely used. These methods make it possible for the parties to voluntarily assign the dispute to an arbitration court or to a mediator, instead of to regular courts. The speed and the efficiency of these two alternatives make them widely applicable to the settlement of civil and commercial disputes.

Arbitration has two main characteristics. It is both a contractual and a judicial procedure. Its consensual nature comes from an arbitral agreement between the parties for settlement of disputes through arbitration. Along with the voluntary relations between the parties, the arbitration proceedings run in compliance with specific procedural rules and in line with the principles of the judicial process, which manifests their judicial nature.

Two kinds of arbitration are known: permanent (institutional) arbitration and arbitration ad hoc. Permanent arbitration is established at an institution, which is usually a non-governmental institution such as the International Arbitration Court at the Legal Interaction Alliance. The advantage of the institutional arbitration over the arbitration ad hoc is that it follows a preliminarily announced procedure (Rules), has a list of arbitrators and has developed a practice, to which the parties may refer. While the arbitration ad hoc (for the specific case) is created by virtue of a special clause in writing, which also should stipulate the basic rules for its forming and working.

Advantages of the arbitration:

Arbitration is an independent and voluntary institution.

Arbitration provides a possibility to choose the arbitrators and presumes expertise of the arbitrators in the specific matter.

Arbitration operates on low arbitral fees.

Arbitration provides final resolution of the dispute within one-instance proceedings, thus is characterized with high speed of justice administration.

Arbitration presumes solidarity in the relations between the parties of the dispute.

The arbitration proceedings are characterized with the highest extent of information confidentiality.

The arbitration proceedings may be held in a foreign language.

Mediation is voluntary, informal and confidential procedure, during which the parties are assisted to reach a mutually acceptable agreement by a third independent and unprejudiced person. One of the mediation’s characteristics is that it may be used during each stage of the dispute, but it is advisable to start the procedure immediately after the dispute has arisen, before it is submitted to the court.

Some of the mediation’s main advantages are:

The parties define their interests and priorities by themselves.

The parties regulate the outcome of the procedure by themselves.

Mediation keeps and restores the relations between the parties.

Settlement of disputes through mediation saves time.

Mediation is cheaper in comparison to court litigation.

Mediation is a procedure in which there is no imposing of a third person’s will on the parties and there is no losing party.

ARBITRATION CLAUSE

All disputes, arising from this contract or related to it, including those arising from or concerning its interpretation, invalidity, performance or termination, as well as the disputes for filling gaps in this contract or its adaptation to newly established facts, shall be referred for resolution to the International Court of Arbitration at the International Court of Arbitration at the Legal Interaction Alliance in compliance with its Rules for Litigations, based on arbitration agreements.