Arbitration Agreement

ECOVIS Miškinis, Kvainauskas ir partneriai advokatų kontora

The Code of Civil Procedure of the Republic of Lithuania provides that in civil cases parties, upon their agreement, may transfer any dispute regarding a right to be resolved by arbitration, except for disputes that cannot be resolved by arbitration. The definition and form of the arbitration agreement provides the Lithuanian Law on Commercial Arbitration. Regarding this Law, an arbitration agreement means an agreement between the parties to submit to arbitration disputes which have arisen or which may arise between them in respect to a defined legal relationship, whether contractual or not, and which may be the subject matter of arbitral examination. An arbitration agreement may be concluded in two forms: an arbitration clause incorporated in a contract or in the form of a separate contract.

The arbitration agreement shall be a written agreement. The Law also provides that the arbitration agreement shall be considered to be concluded if it is:
1.    executed as a joint document signed by the parties;
2.    concluded in an exchange of letters, telefax, telegrams or other documents;
3.    concluded in an exchange of statements of claim and defense in which the existence of an arbitration agreement is alleged by one party and not denied by another, or there is other written evidence about an arbitration agreement between parties.

The reference in a contract to a document with an arbitral clause shall be an arbitration agreement if that contract is in writing and reference is such as to make that clause part of the contract.
Thereby the arbitration agreement is the written contract in which parties agree to decide their certain disputes in arbitration, instead of the courts. The permanent arbitration institutions (the arbitration courts) usually offer a model arbitration clause.