AZERBAIJAN Law and Practice Contributed by: Parviz Huseynov, GRATA International, Azerbaijan
Applications for the recognition and enforcement of foreign arbitral awards fall within the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Azerbaijan. The supervisory and assistance functions of the courts encompass a number of matters arising in connection with arbitral proceedings. In relation to domestic arbi - trations, such functions are exercised by the commer - cial courts located within the territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan, whereas in relation to international arbi - trations they fall within the competence of the Baku Commercial Court. These include, among others:
baijan, dated 28 December 1999 (the “Civil Procedure Code”). In particular, the provisions governing the rec - ognition and enforcement of foreign arbitral awards were revised and brought into conformity with the relevant provisions of the Law on Arbitration; the Civil Procedure Code was supplemented with new provi - sions regulating the exercise of judicial assistance and supervisory functions in relation to arbitration. These amendments were introduced with the aim of ensuring consistency and coherence between the procedural framework and the provisions of the Law on Arbitra - tion. A further key element of the arbitration regime relates to the regulation of arbitration agreements. Article 16 of the Law on Arbitration contains comprehensive provisions governing arbitration agreements, which corresponds to Option I of Article 7 of the UNCITRAL Model Law. In accordance with those provisions, an arbitration agreement must be concluded in writing and may take the form of either an arbitration clause incorporated into a contract or a separate agreement. Irrespective of the form in which it is concluded, an arbitration agreement shall be deemed to satisfy the written form requirement provided that its content is recorded in any form. The requirement that an arbitration agreement be in writing is also deemed to be fulfilled where: 3. The Arbitration Agreement 3.1 Enforceability • the agreement is contained in an electronic com - munication, provided that the information is acces - sible for subsequent reference; • one party alleges the existence of an arbitration agreement in an exchange of the statement of claim and the statement of defence, and the other party does not deny its existence; or • a contract refers to a document containing an arbi - tration clause, provided that such reference has the effect of incorporating the arbitration clause into the contract. In addition, where any ambiguity arises in the inter - pretation of an arbitration agreement, such ambiguity
• the granting of interim measures; • the appointment of arbitrators; • challenges to arbitrators; and • assistance with the taking of evidence.
2. Governing Legislation 2.1 Governing Law
The legislative framework governing arbitration in Azerbaijan has also undergone significant develop - ment in recent years. The first national legislation regulating arbitration was adopted in 1999. Subse - quently, it has been repealed and the Law on Arbi - tration, No 1077-VIQ (the “Law on Arbitration”) was adopted on 26 December 2023. The Law on Arbitration was largely drafted on the basis of the UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration of 1985 (the “UNCITRAL Mod - el Law”). It may be observed that the Law on Arbitra - tion does not materially depart from the UNCITRAL Model Law and both instruments exhibit a consider - able degree of similarity in their structure and substan - tive provisions. 2.2 Changes to National Law As noted previously (see 2.1 Governing Law), the Law on Arbitration is a relatively recent legislative enact - ment. Accordingly, no amendments have been intro - duced since its adoption. It should, however, be noted that the adoption of the Law on Arbitration was accompanied by correspond - ing amendments to the Civil Procedure Code of Azer -
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