13 March 2017
Application of the New York Convention to Foreign Judgments: Analysis of the Wrong Approach of Russian Courts | by Mikhail Samoylov

Although the New York Convention is applicable to the recognition and enforcement of foreign arbitral awards, the Convention has a parallel application in Russia — judges employ the Convention for the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments. In this article, the author demonstrates this practice. The article contains four parts. In the first part, the author provides the results of his study. The author scrutinised cases dealing with the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments in Russia which had been considered by Russian Arbitrazh courts (state courts) in 2008–2016. The author found at least 60 decisions in which the New York Convention has been applied to the recognition of foreign judgments in Russia. The author identifies reasons which lead judges to such erroneous practice. Among them, the author notes an unsuccessful wording of the Russian Arbitrazh Procedure Code, unwillingness of high courts to pay attention to the problem as well as poor knowledge in the field of commercial arbitration amongst some judges. The erroneous application of the New York Convention has its own consequences. The author gives the relevant examples.
The most common way is invoking Article V(1)(b) and Article V(2)(b) of the New York Convention by judges dealing with petitions for the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments in Russia. Finally, the author calls to change the erroneous practice and apply the New York Convention in a proper way.

Keywords: recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments, New York Convention.

Practices