Arbitration Court

Since 1949, the permanent Arbitration Court belongs to the most significant international arbitration institutions and is positively recognised on the European and world scene for keeping up with modern arbitration trends and delivering transparent and competent arbitration of disputes.

The Arbitration Court and its Rules offer clients control over the speed of arbitration, choice of arbitration venue, appointment of competent arbitrators and reliable protection of their rights. Arbitration proceedings are affordable for both legal and natural persons, Czech and foreign. Arbitral awards are currently enforceable in 157 countries under the New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (June 2017).

The Arbitration Court was founded in 1949 and was operating attached to the Czechoslovak Chamber of Commerce. In 1980, its name was changed to the Arbitration Court attached to the Czechoslovak Chamber of Commerce and Industry and, finally on 1 January 1995, the court assumed its current name, i.e. the Arbitration Court attached to the Czech Chamber of Commerce and the Agricultural Chamber of the Czech Republic (“Arbitration Court”). Despite these changes in name, the Arbitration Court has remained a stable institution achieving a distinguished position among the arbitration courts in Europe during its existence. The Arbitration Court decides client disputes from around the world and is a respected institution not only in Europe but beyond.

The Arbitration Court’s reputation is built primarily on the good work of its arbitrators entered in the Court’s List of Arbitrators. The Arbitrators are mostly the leading attorneys-at-law, university professors and recognized experts in their respective fields. The List of Arbitrators contains over 400 Czech and foreign arbitrators (June 2017).

The arbitrators decided over 15 000 disputes before the Arbitration Court over the several decades of its existence. The arbitral awards take effect and become enforceable by the courts of law on the day of delivery to the parties. The enforceability of the arbitral awards in practically every place of the world is guaranteed by the New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Arbitral Awards signed by 157 countries including the Czech Republic (June 2017). The time it takes to arbitrate a dispute and enforce the arbitral award in the Czech Republic is infinitely shorter that the length of average litigation.

The Arbitration Court (known especially in the domain name disputes world as the “Czech Arbitration Court” or the “CAC” ) was appointed by EURid in 2005 to serve as the .EU domain name disputes provider (under the brand ADR.EU) and in 2016 was authorized to administer also .EЮ (.EU in Cyrillic) domain name disputes. The Arbitration Court has decided over 1 500 .EU domain disputes since then. The .EU and .EЮ domain name disputes can be decided in all 24 European Union languages. Please find more information on eu.adr.eu.

In 2008 the CAC was authorized by ICANN to decide disputes regarding generic top level domain names - , “gTLDs“ (e.g. .com, .org, .net, .info), including growing number of new generic domain names “new gTLDs“.

The CAC also administer disputes for few country code top level domains – ccTLDs under the UDRP Rules. These are currently co.nl, co.no and .sx. All decisions, FAQ and more information can be found on udrp.adr.eu.

Since 2004 the Arbitration Court serves also as a centre for domain name disputes for ccTLD .cz. Rules for this kind of proceedings (held currently only in Czech and Slovak language) and all relevant information are to be found at domeny.soud.cz.

All domain name disputes proceedings are conducted on-line through secured and user friendly platforms which allows quick procedure and resolution of the case.

The Arbitration Court was the single institution in the Czech Republic authorized by the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic to arbitrate consumer disputes in the scope of its project of Alternative Consumer Disputes Resolution (the project took place since 2008 to 2010). After the termination of this project the Arbitrators of the Arbitration Court arbitrated consumer disputes for many years and were bound by effective law on consumer protection. The arbitration was held in conformity with the principles of fair trial. The amendment to the Act No. 216/1994 Coll., on Arbitration Proceedings and Enforcement of Arbitral Awards which came into effect on 1st December 2016 stipulated that the Arbitrational court can no longer arbitrate the consumer disputes under the arbitration clauses concluded after 1st December 2016. The Arbitration court also arbitrates healthcare payments disputes.

The Arbitration Court was a permanent arbitration court with the maximum possible jurisdiction in the Czech Republic. The Arbitration Court is a distinguished institution not only in the Czech Republic but also abroad thanks to its innovative approaches to arbitration, the quality of its arbitral awards and the expertise of its arbitrators.

ARBITRATION PREREQUISITE If you wish to have your disputes decided by the Arbitration Court, it is necessary to make a written agreement (or, most typically, arbitration clause) designating the jurisdiction of the Arbitration Court. The arbitration clause is typically entered as a provision in the property contract between the parties. If your agreement was concluded in the past without the arbitration clause, it can be amended by supplementing the arbitration clause designating the jurisdiction of the Arbitration Court for disputes arising out of the contract between the parties. The Arbitration Court usually arbitrates according to its Rules published in the Business Bulletin (“Obchodni vestnik”) unless the parties agree otherwise. The Rules and other information is available to the disputing parties and anyone interested on the Arbitration court web in the Czech, English, German, French and Russian language and also the printed version is available free of charge at the seat of the Arbitration Court, the regional arbitration venues, or at the seats of the Chambers of Commerce and Agricultural Chambers of the Czech Republic

The Arbitration Court contractually cooperates with some regional branches of the Chamber of Commerce (e.g. Olomouc, Most et al.) and the regional arbitration venues in Brno, Ostrava, Plzen, Olomouc and Hradec Kralove.

Advantages of arbitrating before the Arbitration Court:

  • arbitration is single-instance, speedy and less formal;it takes a few months, or even a few weeks, from filing the lawsuit until the delivery of the arbitral award; the arbitral award takes effect and becomes enforceable by delivery to the parties. The arbitration clause may include the option of the review of the arbitration award. In this case either of the parties to prior arbitration proceedings may propose a review of an arbitration award by other Arbitrator or Arbitration tribunal within the prescribed period.
  • arbitral awards are easily enforceable; the New York Convention from 1958 guarantees the recognition and enforcement of arbitral awards in 157 signatory countries (June 2017).
  • choice of arbitrators; the List of Arbitrators includes a number of experts from all areas of the law and economics from the Czech Republic and from abroad
  • sensible arbitration costs;arbitration fee for domestic disputes with value up to CZK 50,000,000 is 5% from the value in dispute (the minimum fee being CZK 11,000); domestic disputes include disputes where the parties are permanent establishments of foreign entities registered in the Czech Commercial Register; international disputes’ arbitration before the Arbitration Court attached to the Czech Chamber of Commerce and the Agricultural Chamber of the Czech Republic is more cost-effective than arbitrating in abroad; please find detailed information about arbitration costs by clicking on the Tarif section of our website.
  • administrative support is provided by a professional secretariat.
  • publishing the Rules in the Business Bulletin enables anyone interested to learn about the principles and conditions of arbitration conducted before the Arbitration Court.

Execution

An arbitral award represents an execution title and can be used as a basis to commence execution proceedings under applicable laws if the obligor disrespects and fails to comply with it.

Arbitration Court Board

President:
JUDr. Juraj Szabó, Ph.D.

Vice-presidents:
JUDr. František Honsa, Ph.D.
JUDr. Petr Hostaš
JUDr. Alexandr Mareš, Ph.D.
Mgr. Radek Pokorný

Board members:
JUDr. Martin Aschenbrenner, LL. M, Ph.D.
JUDr. Petr Bříza, LL. M, Ph.D.2
Ing. Vladimír Dlouhý, CSc.
Ing. Václav Hlaváček
JUDr. Pavel Hrášek
JUDr. Nikola Kubálková
JUDr. Ing. Ján Lučan, Ph.D.
JUDr. Martin Svatoš, Ph.D.

Secretary:
JUDr. Lenka Náhlovská