The Rules on the Efficient Conduct of Proceedings in
International Arbitration were officially launched in Prague on 14
December 2018. This new set of rules, also known as the Prague
Rules, aims to reduce the time and costs involved in the
arbitration proceedings.
The Prague Rules were drafted by a working group consisting of
bar members from civil law jurisdictions many of whom are Russian
and Eastern European lawyers. They are meant to be an alternative
to the IBA Rules on the Taking of Evidence, which are considered to
be dominated by a common law adversarial approach in evidence
taking. The new set of rules is presented as stemming from the
civil law procedural traditionand gives broader inquisitive powers
to the arbitral tribunal.
