“Advokatskaya Gazeta” (Russian Advocacy Newspaper published a commentary by the TV&P lawyer on the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments in Civil or Commercial Matters which was concluded on July 2, 2019 at the Hague Conference on Private International Law.

On July 2, within the framework of the 22nd diplomatic session of the Hague Conference on Private International Law the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments in Civil or Commercial Matters was adopted.

The Ministry of Justice of Russia notes that the main purpose of the treaty is to create a predictable and effective regime for cross-border enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters. According to the Ministry, the adopted international treaty is intended to fill the gap created by the lack of a universal international treaty that would allow the enforcement of judgments of national courts in foreign countries.

The Convention regulates the procedure of cross-border enforcement of judgments. The document specifies the grounds for recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments, refusal to issue an exequatur, and it also determines exclusive jurisdiction of courts. However, some categories of cases are excluded from the scope of the international treaty, including family disputes, bankruptcy cases, intellectual property rights disputes.

The TV&P lawyer Isabella Prusskaya believes that the idea of adopting the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments in Civil or Commercial Matters is to enhance the attractiveness of judicial settlement of cross-border disputes. “Theoretically, the process of enforcing judgments of national courts in the framework of resolving disputes with an international element within the territories of foreign jurisdictions will become more effective. Generally, the mechanism is similar to the one created by the 1958 New York Convention with regard to foreign arbitral awards,” – she explains.

The expert notes the difficulty of predicting the consequences of adoption of this Convention at the present time. “Given the accession to the Convention of a large number of countries comparable to the number of countries that signed the New York Convention, it is possible that international arbitration will become less attractive compared to judicial settlement of cross-border disputes. Anyway, this change is unlikely to happen in the near future, this process may take decades,” – the expert believes.

Isabella Prusskaya also reports that, compared to commercial arbitration judicial settlement of disputes is cheaper and less time-consuming in many jurisdictions. “However, the main reasons for attractiveness of international arbitration have always been the relative ease of recognition and enforcement of judgments, as well as confidentiality. Accordingly, the effectiveness of enforcement of judgments based on the New York Convention is a fundamental advantage of arbitration,” – the lawyer said.

According to her, if earlier one of the advantages was higher competence of arbitrators, their knowledge of foreign languages and special expertise in certain industries and branches of law, today qualification of judges and the quality of judgments in countries with developed legal culture are quite high. “Certainly, creation of specialized courts, as well as general development of judicial systems in individual countries contribute to it. For example, in France it is now possible to conduct judicial proceedings, present evidence and in some cases speak English during the court session. However, confidentiality is still a unique feature of arbitration. It is difficult to imagine that cross-border disputes will be settled in state courts and information about solved cases will be unavailable,” – the lawyer explains.

Isabella Prusskaya says that since Russia signed the final act by which the Convention was adopted judgments rendered on the territory of Russia will be recognized and enforced in other states parties to the Convention. “If judgments of Russian courts are not enforced abroad, this can be regarded as violation of the non-discrimination principle, since the Russian parties will be put in worse conditions than the parties of other states. Accordingly, this can constitute grounds for retaliation – reciprocal restrictive actions. By virtue of current legislation, the Government of the Russian Federation is empowered to retaliate,” – the expert concludes.

“Advokatskaya Gazeta” (Russian Advocacy Newspaper) is the official body of the Russian Federal Bar Association (published since 2007). The Newspaper’s publications are devoted to the most important legal topics, case law, as well as legal practice and issues of advocacy.

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