GEORGIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Lasha Nodia, Giorgi Kekenadze and Ani Akophashvili, Nodia, Urumashvili and Partners
No new major arbitral institutions have been estab - lished in Georgia in 2024‒25. 1.4 National Courts Although Georgia does not have specialised or sepa - rate courts, certain courts within the common court system are designated to hear disputes related to both international and domestic arbitration. Notably, second-instance (appellate) courts handle the majority of arbitration-related matters, including: • recognition and enforcement of domestic arbitral awards; • applications to set aside arbitral awards; • motions for interim measures; and • challenges to competence of the tribunal. Meanwhile, the third-instance court (the Supreme Court of Georgia) is authorised to hear cases concern - ing the recognition and enforcement of international arbitral awards. The Law of Georgia on Arbitration regulates all arbitral proceedings conducted within Georgia, irrespective of whether they are domestic or international in nature. As mentioned in 1.1 Prevalence of Arbitration , this law was adopted in 2009 and is mostly based on the UNCITRAL Model Law. 2.2 Changes to National Law No significant amendments have been made to the Law of Georgia on Arbitration in 2024–25. There is no completed or pending legislation expected in the near future that may substantially change the arbitration landscape in Georgian jurisdiction. 2. Governing Legislation 2.1 Governing Law
them based on various contractual or legal relation - ships. Under the applicable law, arbitration agreements must contain at least two essential terms: • the clear intent of the parties to submit disputes to arbitration (“intent shall be clear”); and • an outline of the types of disputes that are subject to arbitration (“scope of agreement shall be deter - mined”). Furthermore, the Law of Georgia on Arbitration estab - lishes specific requirements regarding the form of the arbitration agreement, and these must be satisfied for the arbitration agreement to be enforceable. Spe - cifically, the Law of Georgia on Arbitration requires an arbitration agreement to be drawn up in writing. However, the law provides more leniency with regard to the written form requirement in a B2B setting and this requirement can also be satisfied: • when an agreement is reached through electronic communication; • when an agreement to arbitrate is reached through the exchange of a statement of claim and a state - ment of defence, with one party asserting the existence of an arbitration agreement and the other party not disputing this; or • when a contract references any document con - taining an arbitration clause, thereby making that clause an integral part of the contract. However, if one of the parties involved in an arbitra - tion agreement is a natural person or an administrative body, the arbitration agreement must be in writing in the form of a signed document. In such cases, the written form requirement is narrowly interpreted, and the aforementioned exceptions do not apply. 3.2 Arbitrability Although the Law of Georgia on Arbitration does not explicitly categorise arbitrable disputes, it defines the general scope of arbitrable disputes. Specifically, the law states that property disputes of a private nature ‒ characterised by party equality and resolvability through mutual agreement – can be arbitrated.
3. The Arbitration Agreement 3.1 Enforceability
In accordance with the Law of Georgia on Arbitra - tion, an arbitration agreement is an agreement through which the parties commit to resolving either all or spe - cific disputes that have arisen or may arise between
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