Arbitrability of Commercial Disputes in Ukraine

When entering into commercial contracts with Ukrainian partners or acquiring corporate rights in Ukrainian entities, many foreign investors/ companies prefer to avoid possible litigation in Ukrainian courts. As the most acceptable alternative for the latter is international arbitration, they normally face the question as to whether any and all the disputes arising out of or connected with such a contract may be referred to arbitration, i.e. are arbitrable. At the same time, to avoid any potential problems the issue of arbitrability should be analyzed under the "triple criteria test": (i) national law of each party to a contract, (ii) law of the place of arbitration and (iii) law of the place of the probable enforcement of arbitral award. Evidently, Ukrainian law should be tested under if not all the criteria but always under criterion (i) and most often under criterion (ii) also, and thus, the provisions of Ukrainian law are fraught with major risks for future