Statute of the Arbitration Court

Statute of the Arbitration Court at the Bulgarian Economic Chamber

STATUS

Art. 1.
(1)          A Arbitration Court shall be established at the Bulgarian Economic Chamber.
(2)          The seat of the Arbitration Court shall be in the city of Sofia.
(3)          The Arbitration Court shall be a jurisdictional institution which is independent of the Bulgarian Economic Chamber.

JURISDICTION

Art. 2.
(1) The Arbitration Court shall resolve pecuniary disputes as well as disputes for interpretation or filling gaps in contracts or their adaptation to newly arisen facts between the parties to the contract, if those disputes are brought to the Arbitration Court by virtue of an arbitration agreement.
(2) The disputes shall be considered and resolved in compliance with the International Commercial Arbitration Act and the Rules of the Arbitration Court at the Bulgarian Economic Chamber.

STRUCTURE

Art. 3.
(1) The Arbitration Court shall be composed of a Presidency, arbitrators and a Secretariat.
(2) The Arbitration Court shall have an Arbitration College consisting of all arbitrators.

PRESIDENCY

Art. 4.
(1) The Presidency of the Arbitration Court shall include a Chairman, Deputy-Chairman and a Member. Тhe Management Board of the Bulgarian Economic Chamber shall elect the Presidency of the Arbitration Court for a term of five years and shall have the right to make changes in the Presidency at any time during that term of office.
(2) The Presidency shall have the following powers:

to elect and enrol arbitrators;
to dismiss and remove arbitrators;
to do all that is necessary for the execution of the decisions of the Arbitral College and rulings and awards of arbitration tribunals;
to take decisions related to the activity of the Arbitration Court;
to determine the issues which shall be discussed and resolved by the Arbitration College with the purpose of unification of the practice of the Arbitration Court;
to take decisions on granting diplomas or certificates for merits to the Arbitration Court at the Bulgarian Economic Chamber.

(3) A member of the Management Board of the Bulgarian Economic Chamber may participate with a deliberative vote in the sessions of the Presidency.(4) Minutes shall be drafted during the sessions of the Presidency, containing the adopted decisions, which shall be signed by the President of the Arbitration Court and at least by one more member of the Presidency. A duplicate of the minutes of each session of the Presidency shall be delivered to the Management Board of the Bulgarian Economic Chamber and when necessary a copy of them shall be given to the arbitrators or their contents shall be communicated to them.

CHAIRMAN

Art. 5.
(1)          The Chairman of the Arbitration Court shall represent the Court in the Republic of Bulgaria and abroad.
(2)          The President shall convene the sessions of the Presidency of the Court and the Arbitration College, prepare a report on the activity of the Court and submit it to the Arbitration College and to the Management Board of the Bulgarian Economic Chamber, and shall organise the execution of the decisions of the Presidency as well as exercise the powers determined in the Rules of the Arbitration Court.
(3)          The Deputy-Chairman shall exercise the powers of the Chairman if the latter is prevented to do so or the latter has assigned their exercising to the Deputy-Chairman.
(4)          The Management Board of the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce shall have the right to elect an Honorary Chairman of the Arbitration Court.

ARBITRATORS

Art. 6.
(1)          Arbitrators shall be enrolled and removed from the list of arbitrators by virtue of a decision of the Presidency taken by secret voting. The lists of arbitrators shall be prepared and approved by the Presidency at its own discretion at any time. At any time during its term of office the Presidency shall have the right to enroll and remove arbitrators at its own discretion. The Arbitrators are not bound by any time limited mandate and they may perform their functions until removed from the list of arbitrators.
(2)          The enrolled arbitrators can be removed from the list in case of death; reaching the age limit as determined by the Presidency; in case of lasting inability to fulfill their obligations; in case of gross or systematic violation of the Statute and the Rules of the Arbitration Court; and also if within a period of five years they have not been appointed as arbitrators by parties to arbitration cases, as well as at any time at the own discretion of the Presidency where it is not necessary to specify the grounds for this.
(3)          A separate list of arbitrators shall be prepared for disputes between parties which domiciles or seats are in the Republic of Bulgaria (domestic cases) from the list for disputes in which at least one of the parties has a domicile or seat abroad (international cases). For all parties to arbitration cases the lists of arbitrators for the certain type of cases (domestic and international) shall be mandatory.
(4)          In order to be enrolled as an arbitrator the respective physical person must meet the following requirements: to be of age, to be capable, to have no convictions for intentional crime of general character, to have higher education in law, to have at least 8 years of legal experience, to possess high moral and ethical qualities. Non-Bulgarian citizens may be arbitrators as well. The list shall specify the name of the arbitrator, the year of birth, his/her occupation or profession, academic degree and specialisation, specialty field and domicile.
(5)          Arbitrators shall be independent and impartial in the performance of their duties and exercising their powers. They shall not represent any of the parties. Arbitrators shall have the obligation to keep as a secret the information regarding the discussion of the Arbitration court as well as any information or circumstances made known to them in the course of performance of their duties.
(6)          When a person is determined for an arbitrator, he/she shall have to specify in a written affidavit to the Secretariat all circumstances which could create reasonable doubts regarding his/her impartiality or independence. An arbitrator shall be obliged to do so after his/her enrolment as well. Copies of this affidavit shall be sent to the parties.
(7)          The lists of arbitrators shall be delivered to all who are interested. The list of arbitrators for international disputes may be also sent to the Bulgarian diplomatic, consular and commercial representative offices abroad.

INCOMPATIBILITY

Art. 7.
(1)          Arbitrators shall not have the right to give verbal or written opinions, advice or consultations as well as represent a party to a disputes under the jurisdiction of the Arbitration Court at the Bulgarian Economic Chamber. Arbitrators, participating in law firms, shall not be arbitrators in cases which any party to the case has assigned to the law firm in which they participate.
(2)          Arbitrators, enrolled in the lists of the Arbitration Court at the Bulgarian Economic Chamber, have the right to participate as arbitrators in other institutional arbitration courts, having their seats in the Republic of Bulgaria or abroad.
(3)          If an arbitrator, enrolled in the lists of the Arbitration Court at the Bulgarian Economic Chamber, has agreed to be enrolled in the list of another institutional arbitration court, this arbitrator shall be obliged to inform in writing the Chairman of the Arbitration Court at the Bulgarian Economic Chamber within a period of 14 days from the date on which he has been enrolled in the other arbitration court.
(4)          Arbitrators shall not be members of Parliament, ministers, deputy ministers, heads of state agencies, members of the Constitutional Court, regional governors, mayors or persons, who are forbidden to be arbitrators by any act of law.

ARBITRATION COLLEGE

Art. 8.
(1) Arbitrators shall create an Arbitration College which shall:

take decisions on organisational issues related to the Arbitration Court;
discuss annually the report of the Chairman of the Arbitration Court for the past year and take decision on it;
discuss the practice of the Arbitration Court on application of legislation for domestic and international disputes with the purpose of its unification. The decision of the Arbitration College regarding those issues are obligatory to all arbitrators if they are adopted by a majority of more than the half of the arbitrators included in the list of arbitrators.

(2) The decisions of the Arbitration College under Paragraph 1, Item 3 shall be binding upon the arbitrators if they have received a majority of more than half of the arbitrators, enrolled in the list of arbitrators unless such decisions contradict to acts of the Supreme Court of Cassation under Article 47 of Act on the international commercial arbitrartion.

SECRETARIAT

Art. 9.
(1)          The Secretariat of the Arbitration Court shall include secretaries and other officers, appointed by the President of the Bulgarian Economic Chamber with the consent of the President of the Arbitration Court.
(2)          It shall be required that the secretaries of the Arbitration Court have higher education in law. The secretaries for the international cases shall have a fair written and spoken command at least in English and possibly in another European language.
(3)          The secretaries keep the files of the cases and the correspondence of the Arbitration Court and perform those activities which they are obliged to perform according to the Rules and Ordinances issued by the bodies of the Bulgarian Economic Chamber.
(4)          The employees of the Secretariat of the Arbitration Court shall be included in the list of the employees of the Bulgarian Economic Chamber.

FINANCES

Art. 10.
(1) All the money related to disputes brought to the Arbitration Court shall be deposited/transferred with the bank account of the Bulgarian Economic Chamber.
(2) The expenses related to the activities of the Arbitration Court shall be at the account of the Bulgarian Economic Chamber.
(3) In consideration of their job related to arbitration cases arbitrators shall receive remuneration defined by a tariff according to the material interest of the claim. This tariff shall also define the remuneration of the Chairman of the Arbitration Court, Deputy-Chairman of the Arbitration Court and the member of the Presidency of the Arbitration Court according the work carried out by them.

STATUTE, RULES AND TARIFFS

Art. 11. The Statute of the Arbitration Court, the rules, the tariffs for arbitration charges and for fees of the arbitrators shall be adopted, amended and supplemented by the Management Board of the Bulgarian Economic Chamber.

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This Statute was adopted by the Management Board of the Bulgarian Economic Chamber under a Resolution of the 01st of March 2017 and came into force on the 01st of March 2017.