ROMANIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Cosmin Vasile, Alina Tugearu and Violeta Saranciuc, Zamfirescu Racoți Vasile & Partners Attorneys At Law
11.3 Standard of Judicial Review Romanian law does not provide for the concepts of deferential or de novo as standards of review. The merits of the case may be reviewed by the Court of Appeal subsequent to the admission of a set-aside action in the following cases: • the dispute was non-arbitrable; • the arbitration agreement did not exist or was inva - lid or ineffective; and • the arbitral award was rendered after expiry of the time limit, even though at least one party submit - ted its intention to object to the late issuance of the award and the parties opposed the continuation of the proceedings after expiry of the time limit. In all other cases of set-aside, the Court of Appeal will refer the litigation to the arbitral tribunal for a new judgment to take place, if at least one of the parties requests it. If not, the court will make a decision on the merits of the case. Romania ratified the New York Convention in 1961 by means of Decree No 186/1961, which came into force on 24 July 1961. Romania reserved the right to apply the Convention only to: • the recognition and enforcement of awards made in the territory of another contracting state; • awards made in non-contracting states subject only to reciprocity (to the extent to which those states grant reciprocal treatment); and • disputes arising from legal relationships – whether contractual or not – that are considered commer - cial under national law. Furthermore, Romania has signed multiple bilateral conventions with countries including Albania, Algeria, Belgium, Bulgaria, China, Cuba, the Czech Republic, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Moldova, Mongolia, 12. Enforcement of an Award 12.1 New York Convention
Montenegro, Morocco, North Korea, Poland, Russia, Serbia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Syria and Tunisia. 12.2 Enforcement Procedure Domestic arbitral awards are treated and enforced in the same way as court decisions, whereas foreign arbitral awards are subject to recognition and enforce - ment proceedings before the Romanian courts. As a matter of principle, any foreign arbitral award is rec - ognised and may be enforced in Romania as long as the dispute is arbitrable according to Romanian law, and the award does not contain measures contrary to the public order of Romanian private international law. For recognition and enforcement of an arbitral award, the parties must comply with certain formal require - ments – they must file a request to this effect before a competent court and attach legalised or apostille- certified copies of the translated award and arbitration agreement. The court vested with hearing a request for the recognition and enforcement of a foreign arbi - tral award is prohibited from reviewing the merits of the dispute, with its examination being limited to the grounds for refusal of recognition and enforcement set out in the Code of Civil Procedure. The grounds for refusal of recognition and enforce - ment of the foreign award provided in the Code follow those established in the New York Convention, such as the parties did not have the capacity to conclude the arbitration agreement, the arbitration agreement was not valid or the award is in regard to a dispute that was not included in the arbitration agreement or exceeds the limits set by the arbitration agreement. As a matter of principle, filing a set-aside claim does not influence the enforcement procedure in any way. In other words, the enforcement procedure may com - mence and be continued even if a request to set aside the award was filed. However, following a request thereto, the court may suspend the enforcement of the award challenged with a set-aside claim if the debtor is about to suffer imminent and irreparable damage arising from the enforcement (eg, the debtor carries out a public interest activity that would be affected if the enforcement continued). The enforcement is with - held only until the ruling of the first court is issued.
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