On 26 September 2022, ICCA held a New York Convention Roadshow for the Bulgarian judiciary and arbitration community in hybrid form. The event was in Bulgarian and drew in more than 50 attendees in person and online, among which judges from the courts applying the New York Convention in Bulgaria, prominent arbitrators, lawyers, professors and students from Bulgarian universities. The Roadshow was co-hosted by ICCA, the Young Bulgarian Arbitration Practitioners and the Arbitration Court at the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (AC at the BCCI).
The event began with a brief overview of ICCA’s activities and international commercial arbitration as a concept, introduced by Professor Stanimir Alexandrov, current Vice-President of ICCA and ICCA President-Elect (starting in 2023).
Following this overview, Velislava Hristova, co-founder of Young Bulgarian Arbitration Practitioners and co-author of the Bulgarian translation of the ICCA Guide to the Interpretation of the 1958 New York Convention: A Handbook for Judges, gave a presentation on the history and objectives of the New York Convention, the success it has had since its entry into force in 1958 and on the enforcement of arbitration agreements by national courts.
The issue of enforcement of arbitral awards under the New York Convention was then addressed by Sylvia Tonova, a partner in the London office of Jones Day.
Alexander Katsarski, who is the vice-chairman of the AC at the BCCI, presented on the topic of arbitration in Bulgaria and the application of the New York Convention by Bulgarian courts.
The presentations were followed by a Q&A session moderated by Stanislav Cherkezov, co-founder of Young Bulgarian Arbitration Practitioners and co-author of the Bulgarian translation of the ICCA Guide, after which the chairman of the AC at the BCCI, Blagovest Punev, delivered closing remarks.
The lively discussion on the application of the New York Convention in Bulgaria that started during the Q&A session continued during the cocktail that followed. The participants received hard copies of the ICCA Guide, now available online in 27 languages, including Bulgarian.
This report was initially published on the Judicial Outreach page of the International Council for Commercial Arbitration’s website. For more on ICCA’s Judicial Outreach Programme, click here.
Submitted by Velislava Hristova, ArbitralWomen member and co-founder of Young Bulgarian Arbitration Practitioners and Stanislav Cherkezov, co-founder of Young Bulgarian Arbitration Practitioners, Sofia, Bulgaria
Left to right: Sylvia Tonova, Stanislav Cherkezov, Stanimir Alexandrov, Alexander Katsarski, Velislava Hristova