Insights from the inaugural London Arbitration Week (LAW) 2025, held in London from 1 to 5 December 2025

Khrystyna Kostiushko, MORIS Of Counsel, (international arbitration), spoke on the LAW 2025 panel “What Ukrainian Businesses Expect and London’s Role in Delivering Trust, Certainty and Enforcement”.

The panel brought together leading practitioners with direct experience advising Ukrainian businesses, including Ruslan Ughrelidze, Alexandr Chernykh, Oksana Legka, Oleg Shaulko, Martin Khoshdel, Faisal Osman, Dr Jamsheed Peeroo and Isuru Devendra.

The panel was organised and hosted by LawLex Solicitors at the Law Society Hall.

Key insights

Khrystyna’s remarks focused on how clients understand what is often referred to as “London arbitration”. Her key insights included:

• In practice, this term is rarely used by clients to denote a specific institution or set of rules. Instead, in Ukraine (and often across Eastern Europe), it is shorthand for a broader framework combining English law, a London seat, and confidence in a professional and neutral process.
• English law carries independent weight. Even where arbitration is administered by non-London institutions or seated outside England, English law is frequently chosen as the governing law of a contract because it is seen as predictable and well suited to international commerce, particularly in the commodities, shipping and finance sectors.
• The London seat is closely associated with strong judicial support for arbitration, including the availability of effective interim relief.
• Clients also value the level of advocacy, and will often be keen to engage a KC for arbitration proceedings as a signal of the highest level of representation.

Taken together, these elements (law, courts, institutions and advocacy) form an ecosystem that has become a recognisable brand: “London arbitration”, valued by clients in Ukraine and across Eastern Europe.

We were delighted to see Ukraine-specific perspectives represented at LAW 2025 and to contribute to an international discussion of this importance.