The International Commercial Court is an innovation for Uzbekistan

The protection of property rights is an important means of providing motivation and incentive for the life of members of any society.  The degree of investment attractiveness of the country also depends on the level of such protection.  Last but not least, it is aimed at improving the welfare of citizens and the entire state. 

President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, in his Message to the Oliy Majlis and the people of Uzbekistan on December 20, 2022, noted that in Uzbekistan, the defender of property and investments is not any khokim or minister, but only the Constitution, the law and the court. Practical work is already underway in this direction, in particular on the organization of an International Commercial Court in Uzbekistan.
Normative legal acts of the Republic (Constitution, laws and other documents) are aimed, among other things, at protecting property rights, further strengthening guarantees and legitimate interests of citizens in these areas, effective implementation of state programs and investment projects to create conditions for a prosperous life of the population. 
The Presidential Decree "On additional measures to further expand access to justice and improve the efficiency of the courts" dated January 16, 2023 approved a Strategy for raising the judicial system to a qualitatively new level for 2023-2026. According to the strategy, the priority tasks of ensuring justice are defined as:
the formation of a truly fair judicial system based on the idea of "In the name of human honor and dignity" and the direction of its activities for the effective protection of the interests of the people and human dignity;
 strengthening the confidence of the people, including entrepreneurs, in the judicial system by achieving fair judicial decisions, affirming the image of the court and judges as their reliable defenders in the creation of every citizen;
 improvement of legislation aimed at creating all opportunities for citizens and entrepreneurs to protect their rights and legitimate interests in the courts, full implementation of the principles of competition and equality of parties in court proceedings, ensuring the objectivity of courts in practice and other tasks.
The judicial system, consisting of the Constitutional Court, civil and criminal courts, economic and administrative courts, administers justice in accordance with the Basic Law and the Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan "On Courts". Arbitration courts also function. Conditions have been created for the creation of international commercial arbitration. At the same time, it is also advisable to create an International Commercial Court.
The International Commercial Court is an innovation not only for Uzbekistan. Recently, countries with a reputation as a center for the settlement of commercial disputes have been creating such a body, whose competence includes the consideration and resolution of trade and investment disputes.  For example, the International Commercial Court at the Supreme People's Court of the People's Republic of China considers the following disputes:
 in which one or both parties are foreign citizens, stateless persons, foreign organizations;
 if one or both parties have a place of residence (permanent residence) outside the PRC;
 in which the subject of the dispute is located outside the PRC;
 in which legal events entailing the emergence, modification or termination of trade relations occur outside the PRC.
These categories of disputes in world practice relate to international commercial cases.
In England, for example, the commercial court considers banking, financial, contractual disputes, disputes on business documentation, import, export and transport, agency and management agreements, delivery, insurance. At the same time, this body is the main supervisory court of the London Arbitration, whose competence also includes categories of issues arising within the framework of arbitration, challenging arbitral awards and enforcement of such decisions.
Another feature of the international commercial court is that cases in them are considered by a composition of three or more judges. At the same time, they are all high professionals in their field. The practice of England and Singapore shows: over time and with the increasing authority of this judicial body, most commercial disputes are transferred to the international commercial court for consideration. For example, the Commercial Court of England and Wales (one of the divisions of the High Court of London) presented a report on activities for 2020-2021, according to which international proceedings accounted for 74 percent of its total workload.
The study of the experience of the work and activities of international commercial courts of foreign countries shows that it is necessary to ensure:
the rule of law and law, as well as neutral, authoritative and independent courts that support this principle;
 fairness and efficiency of the administration of justice, guaranteeing the participants of a commercial dispute the protection of their rights and legitimate interests;
 an authoritative composition of the court from among the leading experts in this field.
It seems that a detailed study of the experience of foreign countries in the creation and functioning of international commercial courts and the provision of the above criteria will make it possible for the successful creation and functioning of an International Commercial Court on the territory of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

Sohiba Inoyatova. 
Associate Professor of Tashkent
State Law University.