FRANCE Law and Practice Contributed by: Kyum Lee, Florian Dessault, Hannah Cobbett and Claire Gonzalez, BDGS Associés
law and in fact all the elements concerning the defects in question ( Cour de cassation , First Civil Chamber, 7 September 2022, No 20-22.118). As such, the Cour de cassation now considers that the review of the award’s conformity with international public policy is not limited to the evidence submitted to the arbitrators, and that the reviewing judge is not bound by the findings, assessments and qualifications of the arbitrators ( Cour de cassation , First Civil Cham- ber, 23 March 2022, No 17-17.981). Thus, the standard of judicial review in set-aside pro - ceedings seems to be closer to a de novo review – with this review, however, being limited to the defects listed in Article 1520 of the French Civil Procedure Code. The New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (the “New York Convention”) was signed by France on 25 November 1958, ratified on 26 June 1959 and came into effect on 24 September 1959. France put forward one reservation upon ratifying the New York Conven - tion, in relation to the principle of reciprocity: “France declares that it will apply the Convention on the basis of reciprocity, to the recognition and enforcement of awards made only in the territory of another contract - ing State”. It should be noted that French law usually prevails over the New York Convention, as permitted by its Arti - cle VII(1), since in many respects French law is more favourable regarding the recognition and enforcement of awards than the New York Convention itself. Thus, French courts rarely apply the New York Convention. France is also a party to other international treaties containing provisions relating to the enforcement of awards, such as the: • European Convention on International Commercial Arbitration of 21 April 1961; 12. Enforcement of an Award 12.1 New York Convention
• Washington Convention on the Settlement of Investment Disputes of 8 March 1965; and • Convention on the Settlement of Investment Disputes between States and Nationals of Other States of 18 March 1965 (which created the Inter - national Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID)). 12.2 Enforcement Procedure Articles 1514 to 1517 of the French Civil Procedure Code govern the proceedings applicable to the enforcement of foreign arbitral awards and interna - tional arbitration awards. To be enforced in France, the award must receive an enforcement decision of exequatur issued by the competent court. This pro - cedure is not adversarial. The party seeking exequatur must submit an ex-par - te application to the competent court and prove (i) the existence of the award by producing the original award and the arbitration agreement or duly certified copies thereof (together with a translation of these documents if they were not drafted in French), and (ii) that such enforcement is not manifestly contrary to French international public policy. Conflict with French international public policy is the only ground for refusal of exequatur. French courts define French international public policy as values and principles that cannot be disregarded, even in an international context (Paris Court of Appeal, 14 December 2021, No 19/12417). In practice, French international public policy cov - ers both substantive rules (principle of good faith in the performance of agreements, regulations govern - ing foreign investment in France, certain principles of insolvency proceedings such as stay of individual pro - ceedings against the debtor, international economic sanctions, prohibition of corruption and money laun - dering, etc) and procedural aspects (such as fair trials, equality of the parties, rights of the defence, fraud, etc). Since conflict with French international public policy is the only ground for refusal of enforcement, French courts may confer exequatur even if the award has been set aside by the courts in the seat of arbitration,
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