Luka Marosiuk spoke at the Young ICCA session about one of the hot topics in our practice – the possibilities and obstacles to resolve disputes arising from the application of the Serbian Company Law through arbitration.
Luka Marosiuk is part of the Young ICCA Mentorship program and with the help and assistance of his mentor, Mr Andrew Clarke, Luka Marosiuk presented how Serbian Company law and Arbitration Law regulate these matters from a practical perspective.
Having introduced the types of companies in Serbia, their structure and bylaws, he went on to look into the subjective and objective motion of arbitrability, and its application to disputes arising from the application of the Serbian Company Law.
A key legal issue relates to whether all shareholders are bound by the arbitration clause contained in the Memorandum of Association of the Company and Shareholders Agreement even if they voted against it A further point was the application of the arbitration clause to shareholders after the insertion of the arbitration clause. An academic point relating to the capacity of the shareholders to claim direct and indirect damages suffered because of the breach of special duties in arbitration proceedings was also discussed.
The remainder of the presentation was devoted to examining options to resolve disputes arising from transactional corporate agreements via arbitration and thoughts on shareholders’ class-action arbitration and if there are other options to achieve a similar result.
This hot topic is of interest to all investors in the Republic of Serbia, as to the question of the validity of the arbitration clause, but also as a potential problem for recognition and enforcement of an international award or in annulment procedures of domestic arbitration awards.