Contract-Negotiation Dispute

Contract-Negotiation Dispute 

in the USSR, a dispute arising during negotiations for civil contracts between state, cooperative, and public organizations, where agreement connot be reached on the content of the particular contract.

The procedures for resolving contract-negotiation disputes are defined by the Basic Principles of Civil Legislation of 1961 and the civil codes of the Union republics. They are also regulated by other legislation, such as the Statute on Procedures for Submitting and Reviewing Claims by Enterprises, Organizations, and Establishments and Settling Disagreements Related to Economic Contracts (1973). The appropriate arbitration tribunal resolves disagreements during negotiation of a contract based on a plan assignment that is compulsory for both parties. If at least one of the parties is a kolkhoz or interkolkhoz organization, the dispute is resolved in court. In negotiations of a contract that is not based on a plan assignment, disputes may be resolved by an appropriate arbitration tribunal or court, if this method is explicitly stipulated by law or by agreement of the parties to the dispute. See, for example, art. 166 of the Civil Code of the RSFSR. In cases established by law, contract-negotiation disputes are resolved by special means. Thus, at trade fairs for wholesalers of consumer goods, disagreements between suppliers and buyers over supply contracts are resolved by the fair’s committees.

Disagreements arising during negotiation of an economic contract must be settled immediately, even if the rules that are compulsory for the contracting organizations do not stipulate a procedure and deadlines for reaching an agreement on the conditions of the contract. The decision in a contract-negotiation dispute is based on a review by a competent body of what is called the protocol of differences, which is usually submitted by the party that has taken the initiative in negotiating the contract. The protocol sets forth the disputants’ conflicting interpretations of the terms that are being disputed. If the parties do not reach agreement in the course of the review of the dispute by the arbitration tribunal or court, the tribunal or court itself issues a decision. This decision is binding for the contracting parties, and thus the contract is considered concluded.