Lloyd's Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly
THE USSR MARITIME ARBITRATION COMMISSION PART 2*
W.A. Timmermans†
6. Procedure
6.1. Statute and Rules of Procedure
6.1.1. Arbitration proceedings
The procedure before MAC is governed both by the Statute of the Maritime Arbitration Commission and the Rules of Procedure. A new Statute was approved by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet in 1980 (see s.2), while new Rules of Procedure were adopted by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in 1982.112
The arbitration proceedings are instituted by the plaintiff filing a statement of claim with MAC.113 The statement should contain inter alia the plaintiff’s demands including the sum of the claim, substantiation of MAC’s competence to consider the dispute, description of the circumstances and indication of evidence, and the name of the arbitrator chosen by the plaintiff. The plaintiff makes an advance payment of the arbitration fee in the amount of 2% of the claim. The secretary of MAC will notify the defendant of the claim lodged against him, and he will be invited to send in his written explanations within 30 days of receiving the notification.
6.1.2. Arbitrators
The defendant must also choose an arbitrator from the list of arbitrators connected with the tribunal. If he fails to do so within 30 days of receiving the secretary’s noti-
* The first part of this study was published in [1987] 3 LMCLQ 350.
† Documentation Office for East European Law, University of Leiden. The author wishes to express his gratitude to Professor R.E. Japikse, Professor of Maritime Law in the University of Leiden, Partner in Nauta van Haersolte, Rotterdam, for his invaluable assistance.
112. The Statute is published in English translation in Yearbook of Commercial Arbitration (hereinafter YCA) Vol. 7 (1982), 246–248; the original Russian version in Ved. SSSR 1980 No. 42 item 868; the Rules of Procedure have been published in YCA Vol. 7 (1983), 219–228 (English) and in Torgovoe moreplavanie i morskoe pravo Vol. 10 (1982), 81–90 (Russian).
113. Art. 4, Rules.
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