Legal Entities under Public Law in Arbitration: In Search of an Optimal Model of Participation

The complex development of public relations and the increasing penetration of state-related legal entities into the civil turnover have put on the agenda the issues of the admissibility of dispute resolution by arbitration with individuals and public legal entities. In search of an effective way to resolve them, participants began to pay more and more attention to non-governmental jurisdictional mechanisms. However, the approaches developed in the middle of the 20th century for international commercial arbitration on these issues have not always proved effective in the contemporary arbitration of internal disputes. The specifics of the legal relations in which legal entities of public law become participants, the strengthening of the public law component in them, does not allow simplifying the interpretation of the legal provisions defining the possibility of dispute resolution in arbitration. In the last decade, Russian scholars and courts have been trying to formulate unified approaches to this problem. It is significant that the highest Russian body of constitutional control is paying increasing attention to these problems. However, a definitively and categorically defined position has not yet been generated. The article presents the results of a study of the problems of the admissibility of participation in international commercial arbitration and in the arbitration of internal disputes of state-related legal entities, implemented using dogmatic and comparative legal methods. Special attention is paid to the problems of the influence of the status of legal entities of public law, their legal personality, connection with the State and the phenomenon of power on the choice of format and conditions for dispute resolution. The article formulates conclusions that can be used to resolve the issue of the admissibility of participation in arbitration of organizations associated with the State and other public entities.