Arbitration, Court of

Arbitration, Court of 

(Gosudarstvennyi arbitrazh), a body in the USSR that examines and settles property disputes between enterprises, organizations, and establishments of various ministries, departments, and central institutions.

The system of arbitration in the USSR includes courts of arbitration under the Council of Ministers of the USSR, the councils of ministers of Union and autonomous republics, and executive committees of krai, oblast, and urban (Moscow and Leningrad) soviets of working people’s deputies. The leading court of arbitration is the Court of Arbitration of the Council of Ministries of the USSR, which is responsible for examining the most important economic disputes. The Court of Arbitration also abstracts the basic principles from cases and decisions of state and departmental courts of arbitration and instructs these courts on practical questions concerning the application of legislation governing economic relations. The Court of Arbitration of the Council of Ministers of the USSR is also responsible for laying down, in agreement with the councils of ministers of the Union republics, the regulations and procedures for the examination of disputes by the courts of arbitration (Decree on the Court of Arbitration of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, confirmed Jan. 17, 1974; see Collection of Decrees of the USSR, 1974, no. 4, art. 19). The statutes dealing with the courts of arbitration of the councils of ministers of Union and autonomous republics and of the executive committees of the soviets of working people’s deputies are confirmed by the councils of ministers of the Union republics.

V. N. ERSHOV