ARMENIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Aram Orbelyan, Narine Beglaryan, Artur Hovhannisyan, Lilit Karapetyan, Sarkis Knyazyan and Shushanik Stepanyan, Concern Dialog
1. Legal System 1.1 Legal System and Judicial Order
The Anti-Corruption Court has criminal and civil juris - diction. The criminal jurisdiction covers criminal cases with corruption-related charges. Within the civil juris - diction, the court deals with civil forfeiture cases and recovery of damages to state and other public entities caused by crimes. The courts of first instance of general jurisdiction have jurisdiction over all other cases which are not subject to other courts. 2. Restrictions on Foreign Investments 2.1 Approval of Foreign Investments The Law on Foreign Investments defines a foreign investor as a foreign state, a foreign legal entity, a foreign citizen, a stateless person, a citizen of Armenia permanently residing outside of Armenia, or any inter - national organisation that engages in investment in Armenia according to the legislation in force. Foreign investment is further defined as any property, includ - ing financial resources and intellectual assets, directly invested by a foreign investor as defined above in commercial or other activities in Armenia to gain profit, revenue or any other benefit. Based on the practice established by Armenian courts, only those assets that are invested in the company’s equity (via relevant corporate decisions) shall be con - sidered as investments. As a general remark, Armenian law in this area does not determine requirements for pre-approval or approval of such foreign investment by any state body. Accord - ingly, besides the generally applicable processes for carrying out business in Armenia, the law does not determine any such pre-approval requirements. That being said, in specific sectors, approval of the investment plan assures incentives and other benefits to the investor. For example, according to the Land Code of the Republic of Armenia (RA), property owned by the state or community can be donated for social or charita - ble purposes or for implementing investment plans approved by the government of the RA. Such a deci -
Armenia is a unitary parliamentary republic (based on the Constitution, as amended in 2015). Armenia belongs to the (continental) civil law system. The Civil Code is based on the Napoleonic Code, while administrative law was developed based on the Ger - man model. In Armenia, only courts are authorised to administer justice. The following courts operate in Armenia: • the Constitutional Court (responsible for constitu - tional justice); • the Court of Cassation (the highest court outside of constitutional justice; it ensures the uniform appli - cation of legislation and eliminates the fundamental violations of human rights and freedoms); • the criminal, civil, administrative and anti-corrup - tion courts of appeal (these are responsible for reviewing the judicial acts of the courts of first instance; they mostly act as courts of law, with a limited capacity to act as courts of fact – mostly in administrative and criminal proceedings); • the courts of first instance of general jurisdiction; • the Administrative Court; • the Court of Bankruptcy; and • the Anti-Corruption Court. The Administrative Court has jurisdiction over all cas - es arising from public relations (both those between public bodies and those between public bodies and individuals), including disputes relating to public or alternative service and disputes between adminis - trative bodies not subject to settlement by order of precedence. The Administrative Court is the body empowered to review fines and other administrative acts. Starting from 1 January 2025, cases related to disputes concerning entering into public or alternative service, performing such service, exemption from ser - vice, and being subjected to disciplinary liability will be examined not by the Administrative Court, but by the first instance courts of general jurisdiction. The Court of Bankruptcy is responsible for managing bankruptcy cases.
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