ROMANIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Cosmin Vasile, Alina Tugearu and Violeta Saranciuc, Zamfirescu Racoți Vasile & Partners Attorneys At Law
12.3 Approach of the Courts The courts in Romania have a positive approach to the recognition and enforcement of arbitration awards and rarely refuse recognition and enforcement requests – in these cases, refusal is generally caused by pro - cedural non-compliance rather than substantial law infringement, such as public policy grounds. The Code of Civil Procedure refers to public policy in Article 1124, which sets out the legal grounds for the public policy exception as follows. Romanian legis - lature explicitly adopted the concept of international public policy, which is addressed as the “public order of the Romanian private international law”. In regard to the notion of public order of private international law, the Romanian courts overtly approach it as part of the Romanian legal order. 13. Miscellaneous 13.1 Class Action or Group Arbitration No provision under Romanian arbitration law address - es class-action or group arbitration. 13.2 Ethical Codes Counsel admitted to Romanian bars are subject to strict requirements under Romanian legislation and codes of conduct regarding lawyers’ practice. Regard - ing arbitrators, there is no specific body of law or rules regarding their ethical obligations. 13.3 Third-Party Funding Third-party funding is not expressly regulated under Romanian law. Therefore, in the absence of any provi - sion to interdict such procedure, third-party funding of the proceedings is permitted. 13.4 Consolidation Although the arbitration law does not exclude the con - solidation of arbitral proceedings, it makes no specific provision for it. The traditional view is that the parties’ consent is required for the consolidation of separate
arbitral proceedings where the arbitral tribunals are constituted of different arbitration panels. Otherwise, constitution of the arbitral tribunal may be considered to breach the arbitration agreement. However, the approach to consolidation may vary depending on the applicable arbitration rules (if any). For example, the CICA Rules provide that any party may request the consolidation of the new proceeding with another existent matter during the request for arbitration or the answer to the statement of defence. The arbitral tribunal might admit the consolidation if: • all the parties agree with the consolidation; • all the claims are submitted based on the same arbitration agreement; or • the claims are made under more than one arbitra - tion agreement, the relief sought arises out of the same transaction or series of transactions, and the arbitral tribunal considers the arbitration agree - ments to be compatible. In deciding whether to consolidate, the arbitral tri - bunal shall consult with the parties and may have regard to, inter alia, the stage of the pending arbitra - tion, whether the arbitrations raise common legal or factual issues, and the efficiency and expeditiousness of the proceedings. 13.5 Binding of Third Parties Under Romanian law, the arbitration agreement and the award may not impose obligations on third parties. Debate is ongoing over the extension of the arbitra - tion agreement to non-signatories – eg, following their direct involvement in the negotiation, performance or termination of a contract containing an arbitration clause – but existing law provides no such remedy. Conventional or legal successors of the signatory are generally bound by the arbitration agreement.
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