Justice Minister Srbuhi Galyan stated that the Armenian government has voluntarily chosen not to comply with an interim ruling issued by the Stockholm Arbitration Court concerning the Electric Networks of Armenia (ENA).
“As of now, the international arbitration court has issued an interim decision, essentially to apply a form of legal restraint, which the government has decided not to implement voluntarily,” she told reporters, according to Panorama.am .
She noted that there are legal mechanisms for both forced enforcement and legal justification for non-enforcement, particularly when a ruling contradicts public policy. These mechanisms are defined in both international and domestic legal instruments.
Galyan emphasized that the arbitration decision challenges Armenia’s internal legal acts: “This decision essentially tells us not to apply our own laws. But this is our country. We say Armenia is a rule-of-law state. Until proven otherwise, our laws must be followed, and this arbitration decision contradicts that principle.”
She added that if a court eventually rules that the government must comply, then enforcement would be carried out through the relevant enforcement service. Still, she questioned whether any court could legitimately require a government to ignore the laws of its own state.
The legal team representing detained businessman Samvel Karapetyan previously reported that on July 22, 2025, an emergency arbitration body appointed by the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce ordered Armenia to refrain from applying recent provisions of the country’s energy laws to ENA and from taking further steps toward expropriating the company.
