On 8 September 2023, a working meeting of the UMAC and the ICAC at the UCCI with the leaders of the Ukrainian maritime industry was held, dedicated to the present challenges and further development of the UMAC following Ukraine’s Victory.
The meeting featured Mykola Selivon, the President of the UMAC and the ICAC, Inna Yemelianova, the Vice President of the UMAC and the ICAC, Mykola Melnikov, the Vice President of the UMAC, Partner at Interlegal, Oleg Podtserkovnyi, the Member of the Presidium of the ICAC, Artem Volkov, the UMAC Arbitrator, the Head of Maritime Law Practice at ANK Law Firm, and Daryana Denysova, the Deputy Secretary General of the UMAC.
Mykola Melnikov, the Vice President of the UMAC, delivered opening remarks and introduced the participants.
Mykola Selivon, the President of the UMAC and the ICAC, presented selected results of the “First Comprehensive Study of the Quality of Arbitration Services in Ukraine, 2022” and spoke on the topic “Effective Dispute Resolution is the Key Expectation of Business. Offering of the UMAC and the ICAC”.
In particular, Mr.Selivon presented the quality assessment based on the results of a sociological survey of the activities of arbitration institutions at the Ukrainian CCI. According to Mykola Selivon, 87% of the surveyed businesses are satisfied with the quality of the ICAC services, 64% of respondents state that the key advantage of the ICAC is the value for money ratio of the arbitration services provided by the national arbitration institution.
At the end of his speech Mykola Selivon noted that the study of the quality of arbitration services offered an objective snapshot of the opinions of users of arbitration services and should serve the basis for determining the feasibility of reforming the international commercial arbitration in Ukraine.
Inna Yemelianova, the Vice President of the UMAC and the ICAC, covered the topic “Comfort, customer focus, competitive cost of the UMAC and the ICAC”. Ms. Yemelianova also shared some aspects of the work of national arbitration institutions. In particular, Inna Yemelianova noted that according to the statistics of the past 5 years, more than 80% of cases are considered within six months from the date of formation of the Arbitral Tribunal. Inna Yemelianova also mentioned the cost of arbitration, which is on average 3.5 times more competitive than in the arbitration institutions of Vienna and Stockholm.
Oleg Podtserkovnyi, a Member of the ICAC Presidium, the Head of the Department of Commercial Law and Procedure of the National University “Odesa Law Academy”, shared the statistics on the enforcement of the UMAC and the ICAC awards. Mr. Podtserkovnyi explained the main aspects of the 2017 procedural reform, in particular, regarding the facilitation of arbitration and the enforcement of its awards and highlighted the problems of enforcement of international commercial arbitration awards in Ukraine. Summarizing his speech, Oleg Podtserkovnyi shared with the participants analytics on the recognition and enforcement of foreign commercial arbitral awards.
Artem Volkov, a UMAC arbitrator, the Head of Maritime Law Practice at ANK Law Firm, provided a brief comparative analysis of the UMAC and the ICAC and the London Maritime Arbitration Association. In his presentation, Mr. Volkov compared such parameters as arbitration fees and costs, terms of dispute resolution, the procedure for recognition and enforcement of the decisions of the mentioned arbitration institutions.
In the end, the participants had an opportunity to exchange views and ask questions to the speakers in an open dialog format.
The participants of the meeting approved the Address to the enterprises/organizations of the maritime and transport industry of Ukraine, in which they expressed confidence in Ukraine’s Victory, the rebuilding of Ukraine as a full-fledged maritime state and the UMAC’s ability to provide professional, effective protection and restoration of violated rights of maritime and transport business entities.
