We are glad to welcome you on a website of the Kazakhstani International Arbitrage — the first arbitration court in the Republic of Kazakhstan, created after adoption of the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan «On Arbitration Courts» and the Law «On International Commercial Arbitration».

The Kazakhstani International Arbitrage (hereinafter, the KIA) is a permanent arbitration institute considering disputes not only according to the legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan but as well as according to the rules of law chosen by the parties to arbitration.

The KIA can act as arbitration court as well as international commercial arbitration, the procedures of dispute consideration are equal. The delineation of competence between them is realized based on the indication of residence: disputes between the residents shall be considered under the Law on arbitration courts; disputes between the parties, at least one of them being non-resident, shall be considered under the Law on international commercial arbitration.

Whereas the enforcement of the right to submit a dispute for consideration to the arbitration court depends only on the desire of the parties to arbitration, while developing the KIA Arbitration Rules, first of all we tried to respect the interests of the parties to arbitration in order to provide fast and effective arbitration in accordance with generally accepted international practice.

Today arbitration agreements are regarded as a standard clause in foreign economic contracts while the international commercial arbitration — as a dominant means in disputes resolution between companies of different countries (unlike the state courts), since arbitral awards are easier to be executed than foreign court judgments all over the world.

It is mainly connected with the existence of the network of international agreements, the most important among which is the New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (1958), to which Kazakhstan acceded on 4 October 1995.

A business company would rather submit disputes for consideration of arbitration courts than state (local or foreign) courts, because if a dispute is considered by a foreign state court or arbitration court, a Kazakhstani company will be forced to litigate in another country, another legal system, where its contractor might be better oriented.

If however a dispute is considered by Kazakhstani state court, to execute its award on the territory of another country would be difficult enough, in view of absence of a global system of international agreements, which would provide the obligatoriness of execution of the awards of state courts on the territory of another country.

All mentioned and many other problems can be avoided by using in contracts with Kazakhstani as well as foreign partners an arbitration clause of the Kazakhstani International Arbitration and to include the clause:

«Any disputes and/or differences, arising from this contract (agreement) or in connection with that, are subject to final settlement in the Kazakhstani International Arbitration in accordance with existing Rules.

The panel of arbitrators will include (one/three) arbitrators.

The venue of arbitration ……… (shall be indicated).

The language of the arbitration will be (………) language.

This contract (agreement) is regulated by the norms of substantive law ……… (shall be indicated)».

The KIA has a number of advantages over state courts and another arbitration courts:

• international panel of arbitrators (the list contains representatives of 24 countries);

• opportunity for the parties to choose an arbitrator, including who is not from the KIA’s arbitrators;

• impartiality, confidentiality and neutrality;

• rigorous compliance with the norms of applicable law during the arbitration;

• fastness and effectiveness of a process;

• opportunity to reduce the arbitration costs in the cases provided by the Rules;

• rendering a lawful and well-founded award;

• real enforcement of the awards of the Kazakhstani International Arbitration.

Taking into consideration high qualification of the arbitrators, the KIA can consider disputes in English even without involvement of foreign experts.

Recently, such a mechanism of alternative dispute resolution as mediation is more widely recognized all over the world, when a mediator offers the parties the variants of mutually beneficial dispute resolution but does not make an award obligatory for the parties. The mediation is carried out in accordance with the KIA Rules of mediation.

The KIA has established partnerships with the leading arbitration institutions of different countries. They are the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (CIETAC), Japan Commercial Arbitration Association, International Commercial Arbitration under the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation, Korean Commercial Arbitration Board (KCAB), International Arbitration Court of the International Chamber of Commerce and many others.

The KIA with the support of the Research Institute of Private Law regularly holds the seminars within the frameworks of the Arbitration Academy on the topical issues of theory and practice of the arbitration, the purpose of which is to provide the practicing lawyers with the topical information about the legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan in the sphere of the international commercial arbitration and arbitration courts.

We hope that our website will help you to find the answers to all the answers, which you are interested in, not only about the activity of the Kazakhstani International Arbitration, but as well as in the sphere of arbitration proceedings in whole.

Yours Faithfulness,

M. K. Suleimenov
Chairman of Kazakhstani
International Arbitrage
Academician of National Academy of Sciences
of the Republic of Kazakhstan
Doctor of Laws, Professor