ALTERNATIVE EXPERIENCE OF DISPUTE SOLUTION SUMMARIZED IN ARMENIA

Noyan Tapan
Apr 02 2007

YEREVAN, APRIL 2, NOYAN TAPAN. The April 2 press conference of the
Eurasia Foundation Yerevan Office was dedicated to discussion of
mechanisms of alternative solution of disputes in various spheres of
social life outside the court system. According to organizers of the
press conference, in case of the efficiently operating court system,
the use of such methods of the alternative solution of disputes
(ASD) as intermediation and arbitration contribute to development of
small and medium business. According to the agreement signed in 2004
between the Eurasia Foundation Armenia Office and the "Progressive
Social Technologies" NGO, the assessment of the current state and
development prospects of ASD in Armenia shows that 88% of small and
medium enterprises view legal procedure as the only way of solution
of economic disputes, and only 8% and 2% of those surveyed are aware
of arbitration and intermediation as methods of dispute solution. The
Association of Young Lawyers of Armenia, the Right Defender Union
and the Union of Builders of Armenia – organizations-winners of the
tender announced by the foundation in 2005 – provided their grants
for increasing the awareness of ASD within the framework of small
and medium business, organization of courses on arbitration at 6
higher educational institutions of Yerevan, creation of arbitration in
Yerevan, as well as for assistance to development of the regulations
on commercial disputes’s solution among construction companies and to
pilot programs on establishment of the respective center. According
to organizations-participants of the program, it is urgent to make
expert examination of the RA Law on Arbitration to clear the issue
of arbitration’s independence from the RA court system. As a result
of this, it will be necessary to amend the indicated law. In the
opinion of the program participants, it is also necessary to add a
new article to the RA Civil Procedure Code, in which the opportunity
to solve disputes in some cases through arbitration will be stipulated.