40

Legal Focus

JANUARY 2013

Arbitration Romania

Arbitration law in Romania is changing. The new Civil Procedure Code is expected to enter into force early this year which will bring significant changes to institutionalized arbitration and international arbitration. 2012 already saw revisions to the Arbitration Rules of the Court of International Commercial Arbitration Court (CICA Rules), with notable changes including the requirement for arbitral proceeding to be in the Romanian language except where all arbitrators are foreign and a reduced time-frame for the arbitral tribunal to render the award. To find out more about the changes to the system as well as the others issues which surround arbitration law in Romania, Lawyer Monthly speaks to Cristiana Stoica, founding partner of Bucharest-based law firm, Stoica &Asociatii Attorneys at Law.

Please introduce yourself and your firm.

My practice includes a large number of business projects assisted or represented in Romania, and a significant expertise in litigation and arbitration, merely related to international disputes. STOICA &Asociatii is one of the largest law firms in Romania, formed in 1994. With a total staff of 55 people, the firm practice is business law orientated, with a focus on almost all aspects of corporate and commercial law, enjoying a strong reputation in international arbitration and dispute resolution. The law firm is, among others, a member of International Bar Association, of International Union of Lawyers and of World Link for Law.

What are the common causes of dispute between businesses in your country, and across borders?

There are two types of major disputes in Romania in general. First, between private persons (either individuals or entities), involving their contractual conduct or attempts to the property law regime; second, between individual or legal entities, on a side and the state institutions, on the other side, as disputes based either on public law contracts or on administrative law infringements or contests. Disputes may include either domestic or international participants, depending on the circumstances of the case, where some of such disputes may be conducted in front of Romanian courts of law or in arbitration. International disputes or better said disputes containing elements of international law relate merely to the activity or conduct of a foreign entity which

www.lawyer-monthly.com

effects are related to the Romanian jurisdiction, in particular generated by cross border operations (entrepreneurial law, privatizations, international trade, product liability claims, and intellectual property infringements). In order an arbitration to take place in Romania, either in front of an arbitral institution (e.g., International Court of Arbitration attached to the National Chamber of Commerce) or in the form of an ad-hoc arbitration, the parties have to convene by way of a convention for arbitration, with the observance of the Romanian law, both on formal and substantive conditions supposed to apply in their case.

as you will know, there has recently been an overhaul of the arbitration Rules of the court of International commercial arbitration court (cIca Rules). What are the main changes that have been brought about?

In Romania, the arbitration, international or domestic, is subject to the provisions of the civil procedure code (Book IV), representing the basic principle applying to any arbitration, either institutional or ad-hoc. In addition, the International Court of Arbitration attached to the Chamber of Commerce of Romania, which is the arbitral institution performing most part of arbitration in Romania, is governed by its own rules. The last modifications of these rules occurred in January 2012. Among them, one could observe the selection by “the authority of nomination” of the arbitrators forming a panel. Also, in international arbitration, it was provided as a rule that the procedure takes place in