Economic courts of the Republic of Belarus are the bodies of judicial authority that administrate justice in the field of business undertakings and other economic activities.

A unified system of economic courts that functions in the Republic of Belarus is built according to territorial principle. It includes 8 economic courts:

1. the Supreme Economic Court of the Republic of Belarus
2. the Economic Court for Brest Region
3. the Economic Court for Vitebsk Region
4. the Economic Court for Gomel Region
5. the Economic Court for Minsk Region
6. the Economic Court for Grodno Region
7. the Economic Court for Mogilev Region
8. the Economic Court for the City of Minsk

The Supreme Economic Court of the Republic of Belarus is at the head of the system of economic courts; it bears responsibility for performance of tasks placed on economic courts by the Law of the Republic of Belarus “On Economic Courts in the Republic of Belarus”, as well as for coordination of activities of economic courts in the regions and in the city of Minsk.

According to jurisdiction specified by the Economic Code of Practice of the Republic of Belarus, economic courts of the Republic of Belarus shall administer justice by means of settlement of disputes in the field of economic relations arising between the economic entities from their civil, administrative, land, financial and other public legal relationships, in particular, with involvement of international organizations, foreign persons, and citizens.

Any foreign persons shall exercise procedural rights and fulfill procedural obligations pari passu with any organizations and citizens of the Republic of Belarus, except for cases otherwise provided for by the legislation, international agreements including.

The Law of the Republic of Belarus “On Economic Courts in the Republic of Belarus” lays the basis for consideration of disputes related to protection of foreign investments, interests of any foreign persons in the State courts of Belarus. The Economic Code of Practice of the Republic of Belarus establishes the procedure for settlement disputes with involvement of foreign judicial persons.

In particular, the following disputes with involvement of foreign judicial persons shall be assigned to the jurisdiction of economic courts of the Republic of Belarus:

• recovery of losses incurred;
• appeal against actions (inaction) and non-normative acts of any officials of the governmental (control, taxation, customs) and other bodies prejudicing the rights and lawful interests of foreign investors;
• application of economic sanctions;
• any disputes between the founders (members) of judicial persons created by foreign investors;
• rejection of registration of any company with foreign investments; defense of business reputation;
• economic insolvency (bankruptcy) and any other disputes assigned to jurisdiction thereof by international agreements and the legislation of the Republic of Belarus.

So, annually economic courts consider about 300-400 cases with involvement of foreign persons. In 2005 economic courts considered 467 economic disputes and other cases with involvement of foreign persons, including 295 claims of economic entities from foreign countries.

40 of 99 claims of foreign persons considered by the Supreme Economic Court of the Republic of Belarus were fully satisfied; in 18 cases claims were partially satisfied.