SLOVAKIA
I. INTRODUCTION: ARBITRATION IN SLOVAKIA–
HISTORY AND INFRASTRUCTURE
A. History and Current Legislation on Arbitration
1. Historical evolution of law relating to Arbitration
2. Distinction between national and international arbitration
3. Law reform projects
4. Confidentiality and publication of awards
a) Publication of awards
b) Practice of publication – where?
B. Arbitration Infrastructure and Practice in Slovakia
1. Major arbitration institutions
2. Number of cases and other statistics
3. Development of arbitration compared with litigation
II. CURRENT LAW AND PRACTICE
A. Arbitration agreement
1. Types and validity of agreement
a) Clauses and submission agreements
b) Minimum essential content
c) Form requirements
d) Incorporation by reference
e) Interpretation
2. Enforcing arbitration agreements
a) Applications to compel or stay arbitration
b) Declaratory actions in court
3. Effects on third parties
4. Termination and breach
B. Doctrine of Separability
C. Jurisdiction
1. Competence-Competence
2. Interaction of national courts and tribunals
D. Arbitrability
1. Subjective arbitrability
a) Natural persons
b) Legal persons
c) State and state entities
2. Objective arbitrability
E. Arbitral Tribunal
1. Status and qualifications of arbitrators
a) Number of arbitrators
b) Legal status
c) Qualifications and accreditation requirements
2. Appointment of arbitrators
a) Methods of appointment
b) Resignation and its consequences
3. Challenge and removal
a) Grounds, procedure and deadlines for challenging an arbitrator
b) Replacement of arbitrators
4. Arbitrator liability and immunity
a) Duties and liabilities of arbitrators regarding the conduct of the proceedings
b) Possibility of restricting or excluding the arbitrators’ liability
c) Possibility of restricting or excluding the arbitrators’ liability
F. Conducting the Arbitration
1. Law governing procedure
a) Notion and role of seat of arbitration
b) Methods for selection of seat absent party choice
c) Mandatory rules of procedure
2. Conduct of arbitration
a) Party autonomy and arbitrators‘ power to determine procedure
b) Oral hearing or proceeding on the basis of written documents
c) Power of the tribunal (in particular the chairman) to issue procedural orders
d) Distinction of matters of substance and matters of procedure
e) Submissions and notifications
f) Effect of the insolvency of a party
g) Legal representation
3. Taking of evidence
a) Admissibility
b) Burden of proof
c) Standards of proof
d) Documentary evidence and privilege
e) Witnesses
f) Experts
4. Interim measures of protection . SLV-36
a) Types of measures
b) Form of measures
c) Security for costs
d) Enforcement mechanisms
e) Limits of the tribunal's power to order interim measures
5. Interaction between national courts and arbitration tribunal
a) Court assistence during the arbitration
b) Dependence of the power of state courts to intervene during the proceedings on the (national) procedural law applied by the arbitration tribunal
6. Multi-party, multi-action and multi-contract Arbitration
a) Consolidation of arbitrations
b) Joinder of third parties
7. Law and rules of law applicable to the merits SLV-40
a) Party autonomy
b) Application of lex mercatoria, general principles, etc.
c) Decision according to equity or as
amiable compositeur
8. Costs of arbitration
a) Arbitration costs
b) Legal costs
c) Secuity for costs
d) Costs of the administration by an arbitration institution
e) Arbitrators' fees: law and practice, judicial control
f) Time and form of the decision on costs
G. Arbitration Award
1. Types of awards
2. Form requirements
a) Essential content
b) Reasons
c) Necessity to specify place and time where and when the award was issued
d) Other requirements (registration, delivery, etc.)
3. Decision making
a) Time limits (and possible extensions) for issuing the award
b) Majority or Consensus?
c) Dissenting and concurring opinions
d) Signature
4. Settlement
a) Settlement recorded in an award
b) Settlement without an award
c) "Private settlement" and its impact on the arbitration procedure
5. Correction, supplementation and amendment
a) Correcting the award
b) Interpretation of award
H. Challenge and Other Action against the award
1. Setting aside
a) Grounds
b) Procedure
c) Effects of a successful challenge
d) Possibility of the parties to exclude, limit
or expand actions for setting aside
2. Appeal on the merits
a) Is it allowed?
b) Excluding the right to appeal by agreement
c) Admissibility and the procedure of an appeal on the merits
III. RECOGNITION AND ENFORCEMENT OF AWARDS
A. Domestic Awards
1. Requirement of a particular procedure to make an award enforceable
2. Details of such enforcement procedure (competent court, reasons for rejection of petition)
3. Appeal against the decision granting exequatur
4. Appeal (and procedure) if exequatur has been refused
5. Procedure of enforcement (attachment of bank accounts, etc.)
B. Foreign Awards
1. Various regulatory regimes
a) Domestic rules
b) Other international conventions
c) Requirements to be fulfilled by the applicants (procedure, time limits)
d) Remedies against decisions granting or declining enforcement
2. Recognition and / or enforcement of foreign awards (conventions, treaties)
a) Existence of a standard procedure for the enforcement of foreign awards
3. Extent of examination and review of the award by the court
4. Application of the New York Convention by local courts
a) Application of the New York Convention in practice
b) Examples of decisions which do not apply the Convention correctly
IV. APPENDICES AND RELEVANT INSTRUMENTS
A. National Legislation
B. Major Arbitration Institutions
C. Cases
D. Bibliography
