Brief Description of the System of Economic Courts of the Republic of Belarus

The Economic Courts in the Republic of Belarus are the bodies of court power and enforce justice in the field of economic relations.

The Economic Courts have been charged with the following tasks:

protection of rights and law–guarded interests of organizations and citizens through enforcement of justice;
correct and uniform application of legislation when enforcing justice;
strengthening the law and prevention of offenses in the sphere of entrepreneurial and other economic activities.

The Economic Courts are state bodies and make a part of the court system of the Republic of Belarus. The Economic Courts are addressed by legal entities and individuals, including the foreign ones, and in certain cases by organizations who are not legal entities, for protection of their rights and law–guarded interests. Disputes on the following subjects fall under the jurisdiction of Economic Courts:

disagreements on the contract concluded in accordance with the legislation of the Republic of Belarus, or when delivery of disagreements for consideration of an Economic Court has been agreed by the parties to the contract;
alteration of the terms and termination of the contract;
non–fulfillment or improper fulfillment of liabilities;
recognition of ownership rights;
ordering by the proprietor or by any other legal owner of the property out of someone's illegal ownership;
violation of rights of the proprietor or any other legal owner not connected with deprivation of ownership;
compensation of losses;
recognition as null and void (completely or partially) a non–normative act issued by a state or other body and not corresponding to the legislation of the Republic of Belarus and violating rights and legal interests of legal entities, individual entrepreneurs;
recognition as not subject to execution an executive or any other document on which collection is made without recourse to the court;
protection of business reputation;
denial of state registration or avoiding state registration in the established period of a legal entity or an individual entrepreneur, and in other cases when such registration is envisaged by the legislation of the Republic of Belarus;
collection from legal entities and individual entrepreneurs of taxes, other obligatory payments into the budget and state–owned off–the–budget funds; fines and other economic sanctions;
return of monetary assets from the budget and from the state–owned off–the–budget funds written off without recourse to the court in the form of economic sanctions or on other grounds back to legal entities and individual entrepreneurs;
liquidation, reorganization of legal entities, termination of activities of individual entrepreneurs;
economic insolvency (bankruptcy);
refusal to issue (extend) a license.

Economic Courts are also considering cases on:

establishment of facts that have legal value in the sphere of entrepreneurial and other economic activities;
complaints against notary actions or against denial to execute such.

The Republic of Belarus has a united system of Economic Courts built on territorial principle. The system comprises 8 Economic Courts and is headed by the Supreme Economic Court of the Republic of Belarus. The latter is responsible for fulfillment of tasks charged on Economic Courts, as well as for organization, status and improvement of operation of all Economic Courts of the Republic.

The Supreme Economic Court of the Republic of Belarus consists of the following bodies:

Plenum of the Supreme Economic Court of the Republic of Belarus;
Presidium of the Supreme Economic Court of the Republic of Belarus;
Collegium for reviewing legality of judgments of Economic Courts;
Court Collegiums for considering certain categories of disputes.

The Plenum of the Supreme Economic Court of the Republic of Belarus solves major problems of operation of Economic Courts. The Plenum comprises the Chairman of the Supreme Economic Court of the Republic of Belarus, the First Deputy Chairman and Deputy Chairmen, judges of the Supreme Economic Court of the Republic of Belarus, Chairmen of the Economic Courts of the Oblasts and the City of Minsk.

The Plenum is convened as necessary but at least once every four months. The Plenum is competent to pass decisions if the majority of its members are present. Decisions are taken by open voting by the majority of votes of the members participating in the sitting.

The authorities of the Plenum are broad. They include, in particular, consideration of the following:

issues of coordinating operation of Economic Courts;
materials concerning study and summarization of practice of solving economic disputes, court statistics, and issuance, in the order of court explanation, of clarifications to Economic Courts on application of legislation in the sphere of entrepreneurial and other economic activities on the territory of the Republic of Belarus;
protests, in the supervisory order, filed against judgments of the Presidium of the Supreme Economic Court of the Republic of Belarus;
submissions filed on reopening cases on which judgments of the Plenum of the Supreme Economic Court of the Republic of Belarus have been taken, on newly discovered facts;
addressing the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Belarus with proposals to give conclusions;
conclusions of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Belarus on non–conformity of explanations of the Plenums of the Supreme Economic Court of the Republic of Belarus with the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus, with international legal acts, ratified by the Republic of Belarus, and with other acts of legislation;
issues on making proposals to improve legislation and legal regulation in the sphere of entrepreneurial and other economic activities.

The Presidium of the Supreme Economic Court of the Republic of Belarus includes the Chairman of the Supreme Economic Court of the Republic of Belarus, his Deputies and judges of the Supreme Economic Court of the Republic of Belarus. It is competent to solve problems in case the majority of the members of the Presidium are present. The Decrees of the Presidium are taken by open voting by the majority of votes of all the members of the Presidium present. The authorities of the Presidium are determined by the legislation.
In particular, it has the following rights:

to consider protests and submissions against statements of the Collegium of the Supreme Economic Court of the Republic of Belarus on examination of legality of judgments of Economic Courts;
to consider submissions on revision of cases, on which the Collegium of the Supreme Economic Court of the Republic of Belarus has taken judgments, on newly discovered facts;
to decide on addressing the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Belarus with proposals to give conclusions.

The Court Collegiums of the Supreme Economic Court of the Republic of Belarus are headed by Deputy Chairmen of the Supreme Economic Court. The memberships of the Court Collegiums are approved by the Plenum of the Supreme Court upon presentation made by the Chairman of the Supreme Economic Court. If necessary, the Chairman of the Supreme Economic Court or his First Deputy may, by means of an ordinance, attract judges from one Court Collegium to consider cases in the other Court Collegium.

Within the authorities of the Court Cotlegiums of the Supreme Economic Court of the Republic of Belarus is the following:

consideration of cases as the first instance court, supervisory instance ahd on newly discovered facts;
study and summarizing court practice of Economic Courts in directions of their activities;
analysis of court statistics, drafting proposals to improve the legislation, as well as execution of other authorities envisaged by acts of legislation.

The procedures of holding the sittings of Court Collegiums, taking judgments, control over execution thereof, and other issues are determined by the Economic Procedural Code of the Republic of Belarus. Within the Court Collegiums court staffs may be formed to consider certain specific cases.

In the Oblasts of the Republic of Belarus the Oblast Economic Courts are operating. The Economic Court of the City of Minsk, and in cases envisaged by the acts of legislation, also the Oblast and the City of Minsk Specialized Economic Courts are equated with the Oblast Economic Courts. The Oblast Economic Court includes judges of this court, as well as the Chairman and the Deputy Chairmen.

The Oblast Economic Court includes:

court collegiums;
appellate instance;
supervisory instance.

The authorities of the Oblast Economic Court is determined by the legislation. In particular these courts are competent in the following:

to consider cases as the court of first instance, in the order of appellate and on newly discovered facts;
to prepare proposals to improve the legislation regulating relations in the sphere of entrepreneurial and other economic activities.

The cases in jurisdiction of an Economic Court are considered by the Oblast Economic Courts and by the courts equated with them, except the cases under jurisdiction of the Supreme Economic Court of the Republic of Belarus. The Supreme Economic Court of the Republic of Belarus considers:

economic disputes between the Republic of Belarus and administrative–territoria l units of the Republic of Belarus, as well as disputes between the administrative–territoria l units of the Republic of Belarus;
disputes on recognizing null and void (completely or partially) a non–normative act of the Republican body of state management or of any other state body, which does not comply with the legislation of the Republic of Belarus and violates the rights and legal interests of legal entities and individual entrepreneurs;
disputes concerning state secrets.

The Supreme Economic Court of the Republic of Belarus has the right, within the jurisdiction of cases to Economic Courts, to determine additionally jurisdiction of cases, to accept for consideration and to solve any case.

Head of the Department of Legislation and International Relations of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Belarus
[Signed] S. A. Vaskovski