1. ADR in Belarus: Recent Developments Alexey Anischenko Tamara Sakolchyk 23.11.2012 Vilnius, Lithuania

2. ESTONIA LATVIA LITHUANIA BELARUS www.sorainen.com 2 General Background  Dual court system: ordinary (civil) and commercial courts with no single Supreme instance  Relatively cheap and very fast state courts (1-2 months in the 1 st instance, 6-9 months for all instances)

3. ESTONIA LATVIA LITHUANIA BELARUS www.sorainen.com 3 Past  No ADR until August 2008, save for arbitration, primarily international, not much tolerated by state courts  Heavy caseload, particularly in commercial courts (>1000 cases per year)

4. ESTONIA LATVIA LITHUANIA BELARUS www.sorainen.com 4 Present  More than 60,000 in-court conciliations  More than 75% settled  Around 90% executed voluntarily  Successful trial project with out-of-court conciliators  ADR friendly environment

5. ESTONIA LATVIA LITHUANIA BELARUS www.sorainen.com 5 Step-by-step  Concept of optimization of rules on commercial procedure - 2008  Chapter 17 of the Code on Commercial Procedure (in-court conciliation) - 2008  Experiment with out-of court conciliators - 2010  Law on [domestic] Arbitration - 2011  Draft Law on Mediation (3 revisions over 2 years) – 2012

6. ESTONIA LATVIA LITHUANIA BELARUS www.sorainen.com Stakeholders  Working Group: –Supreme Commercial Court –Supreme Court –National Center for Legislation and Legal Research  Interested state bodies –Presidential Administration –Committee of State Control –Ministry of Justice –General Prosecutor’s Office  Legal community 6

7. ESTONIA LATVIA LITHUANIA BELARUS www.sorainen.com 7 Critical issues  Level of “juridization”  Types of dispute eligible for mediation  Level of state control: –Qualification requirements –Qualification process –Organization forms of mediation activity –Mediation rules and codes of ethics  Agreement to mediate  Settlement agreement

8. ESTONIA LATVIA LITHUANIA BELARUS www.sorainen.com Risk 8

9. ESTONIA LATVIA LITHUANIA BELARUS www.sorainen.com Key factors  Positive experience with in-court conciliation  Russian Law of Mediation  EU Mediation Directive  Lack of specific knowledge among stakeholders  Human Factor (personal + professional interest; choosing the right path) 9

10. ESTONIA LATVIA LITHUANIA BELARUS www.sorainen.com 10 Perspectives  2 nd reading in the Parliament (Upper Chamber) – Winter 2012  Signing by the President  6 months for implementation

11. Estonia Pärnu mnt 15 10141 Tallinn, Estonia phone+372 6 400 900 fax+372 6 400 901 estonia@sorainen.com Latvia Kr. Valdemāra iela 21 LV-1010 Riga, Latvia phone+371 67 365 000 fax+371 67 365 001 latvia@sorainen.com Lithuania Jogailos 4 LT-01116 Vilnius, Lithuania phone+370 52 685 040 fax+370 52 685 041 lithuania@sorainen.com Belarus ul Nemiga 40 220004 Minsk, Belarus phone+375 17 306 2102 fax+375 17 306 2079 belarus@sorainen.com www.sorainen.com ESTONIA LATVIA LITHUANIA BELARUS Thank you! Tamara Sakolchyk Associate phone +375 17 3062102 mobile +375 29 6705896 tamara.sakolchyk@sorainen.com