Principal directions of international cooperation

The Code of economic procedure of the Republic of Belarus fixes the basic principles of the economic legal proceedings with participation of foreign persons:
· of priority of the international agreements of the Republic of Belarus over the national legislation;
· of granting of national treatment to foreign persons in economic legal proceedings;
· of jurisdictional immunity of foreign states;
· observance of the jurisdiction of the courts and other law enforcement agencies of foreign states;
· of reciprocity (decisions of foreign courts are recognized and executed in the territory of the Republic of Belarus, if this is provided for by the legislation including international agreements of the Republic of Belarus or on a reciprocity basis; the Government of the Republic of Belarus may set reciprocal limitation in respect of foreign persons of that states where special limitations of procedural rights of organizations and citizens of the Republic of Belarus have place.

The procedure of execution in the Republic of Belarus of decisions of foreign courts, international arbitration tribunal (court of referees) is determined by international agreements of the Republic of Belarus and by the national legislation.

Decisions of courts of foreign states, which have not concluded an agreement on legal assistance with the Republic of Belarus, may be recognized and executed on a reciprocity basis in the manner prescribed by the Code of economic procedure of the Republic of Belarus. The principle of execution of foreign courts decisions on a reciprocity basis was acknowledged by the Code of economic procedure in the wording of 1998 (article 314).

The economic courts of the Republic apply the following international agreements in their activities:
Convention on Civil Process Matters (the Hague, 1964);
Convention on Convention on the Service Abroad of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil or Commercial Matters (the Hague, 1965);
Convention on the Taking of Evidence Abroad in Civil or Commercial Matters (the Hague, 1970);
Convention on International Accessibility of Justice (the Hague, 1980);
European Convention on Information on Foreign Law (London, 1968);
UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (Vienna, 1980);
Convention on the Limitation Period in the International Sale of Goods (New York, 1974);
Convention on Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitration Decisions (New York, 1958);
Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents (the Hague, 1961).

The Supreme Economic Court is the central agency of cooperation with justice authorities on bilateral agreements on legal assistance and legal relationship in civil, family and criminal cases with Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Cuba, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Italy, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam as well as of Agreement on procedure of settlement of the disputes related to performance of economic activity (Kiev, March 1992), Convention on legal assistance and legal relationship in civil, family and criminal cases (Minsk, 1993), Convention on legal assistance and legal relationship in civil, family and criminal cases (Kishinev, 2002) concluded within framework of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

The Supreme Economic Court has achieved the closest cooperation with judicial authorities of CIS. Thus, our court initiated Agreement on procedure of reciprocal execution of judicial acts of economic courts of the Republic of Belarus and arbitration tribunals of the Russian Federation between the Republic of Belarus and the Russian Federation (2001) entered into force from 29.07.2002.

Following issues were put on the agenda within the framework of activity of the Board of Chairmen of the supreme arbitration, economic and other courts of CIS, settling the cases on disputes in the field of economics:
· reform of the system of settlement of disputes in CIS (as applied to reformation of the Economic Court of CIS);
· creation of a uniform electronic base of judicial acts on application of the norms of international agreements of the states participants of the Board of Chairmen;
· harmonization of issues of rendering legal assistance and payment of the state duty;
· interaction of state justice and arbitration.

Traditionally held meetings are of great importance for strengthening and development of legal cooperation between courts of the CIS countries.

The Supreme Economic Court has established working contacts with such international organizations as United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), International Arbitration Court at Belarusian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (hereinafter referred to as IAC at BelCCI), CIS Economic Court and other statutory bodies of CIS in addition to cooperation with judicial authorities of CIS countries.

The aforesaid cooperation allows significant extending the number of issues information on which is later collected, reserved and exchanged later during appliance of international legal acts.

The Supreme Economic Court cooperates with UNCITRAL Commission in such fields as international purchase and sale of the goods, international trade arbitration and conciliation, public procurement and infrastructure development, transboundary insolvency; participates in the created by UNCITRAL Secretariat system of collection and dissemination of information on court and arbitration decisions based on conventions and model laws developed by UNCITRAL. Furthermore, in November 2004 the UNCITRAL Cooperation Coordination Board with the Supreme Economic Court at the head was created on a prescription of the President of the Republic of Belarus.

In March 2004 the Cooperation Agreement between the Supreme Economic Court and IAC at BelCCI was concluded. The stated agreement provides for participation of the court representatives in the actions that take place, exchange of legal and other information and other more effective forms of cooperation.

The Supreme Economic Court is also a participant of a number of bilateral agreements on mutual cooperation and exchange of legal information with the CIS Economic Court, the Economic Court of Azerbaijan, the Supreme Court of Kazakhstan, the Supreme Economic Court of Tajikistan, the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation, the Supreme Economic Court of Uzbekistan, the Supreme Court Chamber of Moldova, the Supreme Court of the Republic of Cube, the Cassational Court of Armenia, the Supreme Court of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, the Supreme Court of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, the Supreme People’s Court of the Republic of China.

Furthermore, the Supreme Economic Court has acted as organizer of conferences, workshops on legal subjects. Thus, for example, in October 2006 the international conference on the subject International Practice of Recognition and Enforcement of Court Decisions in the Field of Economic Relations took place.

From June 26 to 38, 2007 a regular international workshop on actual problems of modern justice was held in Minsk together International Legal Exerts Union.

The issues of judicial practice in tax disputes, law enforcement practice of the courts of the CIS countries and Germany in these subjects, laws on responsibility for crimes in the economic field and practice of their application, problems of reciprocal execution of court decisions; issues of organization of justice authorities, Office of Public Prosecutor were put forward for discussion in the workshop.

The work on consolidation of relationship with the supreme judicial authorities of the CIS countries, the Supreme Federal Court and Office of Public Prosecutor of Germany for further long-range cooperation in the field of economic justice, expansion of foreign contacts of the Republic of Belarus with the states participants of the workshop.

Thus, the principal directions of international cooperation of the Supreme Economic Court and foreign states are:
· Explanation of the most important issues of international agreements application, expert judgment of draft international agreements concluded by the Republic of Belarus with foreign states;
· Cooperation with foreign judicial authorities: rendering of legal assistance on recognition and enforcement of the decisions of foreign courts in the territory of the Republic of Belarus, execution of the letters of request, exchange of legal information on the issues of laws application and judicial practice.
· Holding of international scientific and practical conferences, round tables for discussion of the issues relating to entrepreneurial or other economic with participation of representatives of international organizations and foreign states.
· Meetings with business groups of foreign states on the issues of activity of economic courts and investment legislation in the Republic of Belarus.
· Cooperation with the international press in the field of law.
· Participation in the events on legal subjects, held by foreign and international organizations.