MAURITIUS Law and Practice Contributed by: Sivakumaren (Robin) Mardemootoo, Natasha Behary Paray and Jeeshna (Kaajal) Radhakissoon, Dentons Mauritius LLP
Court, supported by an affidavit of the facts and a duly authenticated copy of the judgment. Upon receipt of the application, the Supreme Court may grant leave to register the judgment while fixing a time limit, typically between one and two months, within which the judgment debtor may apply to set aside the registration on the limited grounds provided for under the 1923 Act. If no such application is made, the foreign judgment is deemed executory in Mauri- tius. It must however be noted that, where the judgment sought to be enforced is a pecuniary judgment from superior courts of the UK, the judgment creditor nev- ertheless retains the option of proceeding under either regime. In practice, the exequatur procedure is often the preferred route, as it imposes no time limit on the commencement of enforcement proceedings, making it more flexible than the 1923 Act. 9.2 Enforcement of Arbitral Awards Mauritian law provides for distinct enforcement regimes for domestic and foreign or international arbi- tral awards. For foreign and international arbitral awards, the enforcement process is governed by the Supreme Court (International Arbitration Claims) Rules 2013 and the Convention on the Recognition and Enforce- ment of Foreign Arbitral Awards Act 2001. The process begins through an application by way of arbitration motion before the Chief Justice, who verifies compliance of the application with the appli- cable court rules and the 2001 Act before issuing a provisional order. The provisional order is then served on the respondent, who has 14 days from service to apply for its setting-aside on one or more of the grounds set out in the 2001 Act, which reflects the grounds for resisting enforcement under the New York Convention, at which point the proceedings become adversarial. If no such application is made, or if it is unsuccess- ful, the award may be enforced in the same manner as a judgment of the court. Adversarial enforcement proceedings are heard by a bench of three designated
judges of the Supreme Court, and there exists a direct and automatic right of appeal to the Judicial Commit- tee of the Privy Council. For domestic arbitral awards, enforcement is initiated through the exequatur process by way of praecipe before the judge in chambers of the Supreme Court. The judge will determine whether the arbitral award is valid and satisfies the applicable conditions before granting exequatur and ordering the award to be made executory. Once enforcement is granted, the award creditor may initiate the various enforcement measures available, such as seizure, attachment or winding up, to give effect to the award. 9.3 Length of Time The duration of enforcement proceedings will largely depend on whether an application is resisted or not. While unopposed applications may be granted speed- ily, contested enforcement applications for domestic or international arbitral awards may take between six and 12 months. Meanwhile, enforcement of a dis- puted foreign judgment can take between six and 18 months. 9.4 Grounds for Resisting Enforcement Mauritian law provides for distinct grounds upon which a party may resist the enforcement of foreign judgments and arbitral awards, depending on the applicable enforcement regime and the instrument being enforced. Foreign Judgments In respect of foreign judgments enforced under the exequatur procedure, enforcement may be resisted on the following grounds: • the judgment is no longer valid or capable of execution in the country where it was delivered; • the judgment is contrary to public policy; • the respondent was not regularly summoned to attend the foreign proceedings; or • the foreign court lacked jurisdiction over the matter. In recent jurisprudence, the Supreme Court appears to have included an additional ground to the above conditions by noting that an applicant must also establish a legitimate interest in obtaining exequatur
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