Counsels Oksana Legka and Oleksandr Volkov have been appointed as Partners in Asters' International Arbitration and Cross-Border Litigation practice, effective January 1, 2024.

Simeon Hinkov has been appointed as an Associated Partner with Sofia-based law firm Stankov Todorov Hinkov & Spasov.

Arbitration clauses, in their nature, impose on the parties an obligation to refer their disputes to arbitration as set forth in the arbitration agreement. Such agreements are vastly symmetrical – they provide both parties with the equal right to invoke arbitration proceedings.

The UK has not been a member of the European Union and thus of the comprehensive European framework for cross-border civil litigation since 1 January 2021. Within the EU, the Brussels I Recast-Regulation (Regulation [EU] 1215/2012) not only provides a set of common rules on the jurisdiction of the courts but also ensures rapid and simple recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters issued in the Member States. Under the Brussels I Regulation, judgments are enforceable without any declaration of enforceability. A judgment rendered in France or Romania can be enforced in Austria without much trouble and vice versa.

Dispute resolution clauses in contracts include arbitration agreements stating that the parties will attempt to resolve their disputes through mutual negotiation before going to arbitration proceedings, and if the dispute cannot be resolved in this way, arbitration proceedings will be resorted to.

Do defendants need to make a formal setoff statement against the creditor’s claim in front of the judge to extinguish the claimant’s claim? Or is it enough to refer informally to an earlier setoff made by them prior to the litigation? A fresh decision of the Hungarian Supreme Court, analysed in this article, gives answer to these questions.