The article is devoted to the specifics of the determination of applicable law by international commercial arbitration in Russian law, ICAC Rules and Arbitration Practice. It is noted that special features of determination of the applicable law by international commercial arbitration are directly confirmed on the legislative level in the Civil Code of RF (Article 1186(1),and that these may be interpreted as an acknowledgement of a certain de-nationalization of international commercial arbitration in the field of private international law. The specifics of determination of the applicable law are stipulated by the RF Law on international commercial arbitration of 1993 based on the UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration, 1985. The article provides the analysis of the freedom of the parties to choose the “rules of law” taking into consideration the special interpretation of this term in legal regulation of international arbitration. This would include not only the law, but also transnational rules, created for international commercial turnover which are not a part of national law. Attention is paid to the method of determination of applicable law by arbitration, which is free from the application of the conflict of law rules of the place of arbitration. Special attention is given to the provisions of the Rules of ICAC at CCI of RF, where Article 28 of the Law of 1993 is included and to ICAC practice.