UNCITRAL UNITED NATIONS COMMISSION ON INTERNATIONAL TRADE LAW

UNITED NATIONS

UNCITRAL Secretariat

Guide on the Convention on

the Recognition and Enforcement

of Foreign Arbitral Awards

(New York, 1958)

Further information may be obtained from:

UNCITRAL secretariat, Vienna International Centre,P.O. Box 500, 1400 Vienna, Austria

Telephone: (+43-1) 26060-4060 Telefax: (+43-1) 26060-5813Internet: www.uncitral.org E-mail: uncitral@uncitral.org

UNCITRAL Secretariat Guide on the

Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards

(New York, 1958)

2016 Edition

UNITED NATIONS New York, 2016

UNITED NATIONS COMMISSION ON INTERNATIONAL TRADE LAW

UNITED NATIONS PUBLICATIONSales No.: E.16.V.7

ISBN: 978-92-1-133851-5e-ISBN: 978-92-1-058318-3

NoteSymbols of United Nations documents are composed of capital letters com-

bined with figures. Mention of such a symbol indicates a reference to a United Nations document.

United Nations, September 2016. All rights reserved, worldwide.

The Guide is a product of the work of the Secretariat based on expert input, and was not substantively discussed by the United Nations Commission on Interna-tional Trade Law (UNCITRAL). Accordingly, the Guide does not purport to reflect the views or opinions of UNCITRAL member States and does not consti-tute an official interpretation of the New York Convention.

The designations employed and the presentation of material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Secretariat of the United Nations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area, or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.

Publishing production: English, Publishing and Library Section, United Nations Office at Vienna.

iii

Contents

Page

Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Article I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Article I(1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

A. Meaning of recognition and enforcement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

B. Meaning of arbitral awards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

C. Arbitral awards falling within the scope of the Convention . . . . . . 18

D. Meaning of arising out of differences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Article I(2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Article I(3) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

A. Reciprocity reservation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

B. Commercial reservation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Article II . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Article II(1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

A. The obligation to recognize an agreement in writing . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

B. Meaning of agreement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

C. Scope of the agreement in writing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Article II(2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

A. Arbitral clause in a contract versus arbitration agreement . . . . 52

B. The signature requirement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

C. An arbitral clause or an arbitration agreement included in an exchange of documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

iv

Article II(3) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

A. General principles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

B. Enforcement of arbitration agreements under article II(3) . . . . . . 62

Article III . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

A. General principles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

B. Rules of procedure of the territory where theawardis relied upon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

C. There should not be imposed substantially more onerous conditions or higher fees or charges than are imposed on the recognition or enforcement of domestic arbitral awards . . 90

Article IV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

A. Prima facie right to recognition and enforcement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

B. An exhaustive set of requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

C. Whether applicants can supply some, but not all, article IV documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

D. [A]t the time of the application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

Article IV(1)(a) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

A. The requirement that the applicant provide theaward . . . . . . . . . 105

B. Authentication and certification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

Article IV(1)(b) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

A. The requirement that the applicant provide thearbitration agreement referred to in article II . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

B. No requirement to prove the validity of thearbitration agreement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

C. No requirement to authenticate the arbitration agreement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

Article IV(2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

A. Governing law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

B. Certification by an official or sworn translator or by a diplomatic or consular agent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

C. The object of translation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

v

Article V . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

A. Court discretion under article V . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

B. Exhaustive character of grounds under article V . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

C. Burden of proof under article V . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

Article V (1)(a) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

Incapacity of the parties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

A. Meaning of the parties to the agreement referred to in article II . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

B. Concept of incapacity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

C. Meaning of the law applicable to them . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

D. Relevant time for incapacity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

Invalidity of the arbitration agreement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

A. The choice of law rule under article V(1)(a) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

B. Meaning of invalidity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

C. Formal validity of an arbitration agreement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

Procedural issues arising in connection with article V(1)(a) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

A. Burden of proof . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

B. Relevance of the findings of arbitral tribunals orcourts . . . . . . . . . 148

C. Preclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

Article V (1)(b) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

A. The requirement that the parties be given proper no