ROMANIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Cosmin Vasile and Alina Tugearu, Zamfirescu Racoți Vasile & Partners Attorneys At Law
costs to be shared (ie, each party will cover their own costs). 11.3 Interest Awarded on Costs Under Romanian law, interest on costs is not awarded. 12. Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) 12.1 Views of ADR Within the Country ADR in the form of arbitration and mediation has not traditionally been commonly used in Roma- nia but has gained popularity in recent years. The most used ADR process is conciliation, which is usually organised by the parties themselves or by the assisting attorneys. In the past couple of years, mediation has been intensely lobbied for but has still has not been used in a significant share of disputes. Adjudication is also used, generally in disputes arising from International Federation of Consult- ing Engineers contracts. Arbitration is more frequently used when one of the parties is based outside Romania and/or when one or both parties are acting in a profes- sional capacity. 12.2 ADR Within the Legal System As a rule, the Romanian legal system does not really promote ADR. However, there is a general obligation on a judge to urge parties to try to settle their dispute amicably. Since August 2014, following Constitutional Court Decision No 266/2014, mediation is no longer compulsory before submitting a claim to court.
There are certain cases in which the law pro- vides for a preliminary procedure. For example, in administrative law, the provisions require the fulfilment of a preliminary procedure taking the form of a preliminary request addressed to the institution refusing the claimed right, or the insti- tution superior to the one refusing the right or the form of conciliation, when the claims derive from an administrative contract. In such a case, the preliminary procedure is compulsory. If a claim were to be filed without the preliminary proce- dure being observed, it would be rejected as premature. If either the law or the contract provides for another type of preliminary procedure, such as adjudication, the courts or tribunals may compel the parties to undergo that procedure. 12.3 ADR Institutions In general, there is room for improvement where the institutions offering and promoting ADR are concerned. The main institution for ADR in Romania is the Court for International Commercial Arbitration (CICA), which functions within the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Romania. In the past few years, arbitration has experienced steady growth. The majority of cases involve construc- tion disputes, but various other contractual dis- putes are also referred to international arbitra- tion, including energy-related disputes. Even steadier growth is expected, following the new set of rules adopted by CICA on 1 January 2019, which are aligned with the rules of the ICC and other similar institutions, such as the LCIA.
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