The Plenum of the Higher Arbitrazh Court of Russia issued on 18 July 2014 Ruling № 50 "On peaceful settlement between parties in arbitrazh proceedings". The purpose of the Court’s explanations is to encourage businessmen to resolve their disputes out of court, with minimum time and effort. In its recommendations, the Court is acting on the assumption that honest and reasonable civil parties are interested in agreeing and converging their interests in order to maintain a stable and mutually favourable business environment.
"The ruling is based on the understanding that serious business aims for the long term, and even if because of this, businessmen, while resolving a dispute, are anxious to achieve mutually favourable terms for future development" - believes attorney Andrei Rakhmilovich.
The ruling was preceded by a detailed discussion in the Presidium of the Higher Arbitrazh Court.
"Unfortunately, some fundamental approaches reflected in the draft ruling, were somewhat "softened" in the final version. Thus, the draft contained a rule that the parties may include into their settlement any provisions not directly relevant to the claims. The language of the final version is different: the parties may include into their settlement provisions that are relevant to the claims but were not the subject of the proceedings. This position of the Court will potentially limit the parties’ ability to resolve their disputes by entering into settlement agreements" - says Andrei Rakhmilovich.
However, practice will show how well any rule works, and whether the ruling as a whole lives up to our expectations.
