Latvia has recently taken significant steps to amend its arbitration law, introducing a set-aside mechanism among other necessary changes. This article provides an overview of the background to these changes, the specifics of the new set-aside mechanism, and other amendments made to the Latvian arbitration law. Background Elimination of any or all grounds for…
Latvia’s status as the arbitration unicorn remains undisputed after nearly ten years since adopting the country’s first Arbitration Law (“Latvian Arbitration Law”). In February 2024, the overly liberal Latvian regime resulted in 57 arbitral institutions. This record-high number, however, is considerably less than the 214 arbitral institutions in Latvia in 2013. Although advertised by the…
On February 24, 2023, the Latvian Constitutional Court issued a long-awaited Judgement in case 2022-03-01 confirming that the current control mechanism over arbitration in Latvia is incomplete and unconstitutional. This means that the government will now be required to introduce a procedure for setting aside arbitral awards made by tribunals seated in Latvia. Background…
Latvia is an infamous unicorn in the field of arbitration because of its record-number of institutional arbitration courts. In November 2013, there were 214 arbitration courts in Latvia. Regretfully, this is not because we as a nation love arbitration that much. Liberal regulations have allowed any legal entity to establish an arbitration court which to…
Latvian courts annually enforce approximately 1000 arbitral awards. Just a few years ago this number was even higher – reaching 7000 requests in 2004 (statistics of the Court Information System available here) – since also consumer disputes could have been submitted to arbitration, as non-negotiated arbitration clauses were not presumed to be unfair and thus…
