Since its foundation The International Bar Association has concentrated on publications and spreading materials, devoted both to IBA’s activity and law practice matters in different fields of law. In 2009 the Russian translated version of IBA Guidelines on Conflicts of Interest in International Arbitration was published. Ilya Nikiforov and Sergey Abesadze from EPAM are the co-authors of issue.

Applicants’ trust in arbitrators accounts for the growing demand for the international arbitration to resolve disputes. The trust is not only based on the solid reputation and expertise of the arbitrators, but also on the election procedure of arbitrators, which requires them to disclose any facts that may reasonably put in question their ability to proceed independently and impartially. However, no exhaustive list of such facts to be disclosed has ever been set up, no coherent principle on the matter has been developed by either the government courts (in resolving claims to reverse arbitral awards or enforce the same), or even the arbitrators and arbitration institutes.

The Guidelines on Conflicts of Interest in International Arbitration is a document drafted by the International Bar Association (IBA) to unify rules regarding independence and impartiality of arbitrators. Since there is no prescribed set of circumstances that may raise reasonable doubts about the independence and impartiality of arbitrators in the international practice, the IBA engaged in the study of national legislation, rules of arbitration, judicial and arbitration practices and opinions of lawyers practicing international arbitration to produce common standards that would govern both parties to arbitration and state courts. This work resulted in the IBA 'Guidelines on Conflicts of Interest in International Arbitration' approved on May 22, 2004.

In order to make this document available in Russian, the IBA formed a working group that included Ilya Nikiforov and Sergey Abesadze from EPAM, along with other leading Russian lawyers.

The text produced by the group was approved by the IBA Arbitration Committee as the official Russian version of the document.

The International Bar Association (IBA) has a membership of 30,000 lawyers and 195 bar associations and law societies. The IBA has considerable expertise in providing assistance to the global legal community.

IBA Guidelines on Conflicts of Interest in International Arbitration (Russian)

IBA Guidelines on Conflicts of Interest in International Arbitration (English)