Browse

This chapter discusses the enforcement of financial awards in international financial disputes. It explains the presumptive validity of arbitral awards and the ‘pro-enforcement’ approach to the recognition and enforcement of awards under the New York Convention and national arbitration statutes. It considers the limited grounds on which enforcement of an award may be challenged under Article V of the New York Convention, and the circumstances in which the courts of Contracting States may adjourn or suspend recognition proceedings pending the resolution of actions to annul an award in the arbitral seat. It summarizes overviews of the enforcement schemes provided under the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), Panama, and Geneva Conventions, and certain practical issues surrounding the tracking of assets of scofflaw award debtors.

This chapter summarizes the key aspects of the English legal system with respect to the role of courts in arbitrations seated in England and Wales. First, it highlights the key provisions of relevant English legislation, mainly of the English Arbitration Act of 1996 and the principal court decisions arising under that legislation. Second, it describes the manner in which English law as the law of the seat affects the role of English courts in the course of three discrete stages: before the award, after the award, and during recognition and enforcement. In the process and where necessary, it addresses and ultimately rejects recently articulated concerns questioning the supremacy of England and Wales as an arbitration seat. The chapter concludes that England and Wales possesses a comprehensive and clearly articulated legal framework governing arbitration, and a sophisticated, impartial judiciary with ample experience in complex arbitral disputes and the collateral issues they raise under both English law and foreign laws and regulations. The jurisdiction is distinctly arbitration-friendly, with a keen understanding of the benefits arbitration aims to confer on parties, and the policy considerations such benefits entail.