DENMARK Law and Practice Contributed by: Jakob Lentz, Johannes Grove Nielsen, Camilla Hudson and Rasmus Schmidt, Bech-Bruun
refused, are very narrow according to Sections 37 and 39 of the DAA.
agreement of the parties or with the law of the country where the arbitration took place; or • the award has not yet become binding on the par - ties or has been set aside or suspended. The court can also refuse to enforce an arbitral award if it finds that the subject matter of the dispute is not capable of settlement by arbitration under Danish law or the recognition or enforcement of the award would be manifestly contrary to the public policy of the country. Commencing Enforcement Proceedings Enforcement proceedings can be commenced by fil - ing at the competent enforcement court ( Fogedretten ) in accordance with Chapter 46 of the AJA. The com - petent enforcement court will generally be where the losing party is domiciled or has its usual place of busi - ness. A party applying for enforcement of an arbitral award must supply the court with a duly certified copy of the award and of the arbitration agreement if the agree - ment is in writing. The documents will, if necessary, be accompanied by a duly certified translation into Danish. A proceeding for setting aside an arbitration award will most likely not suspend enforcement. However, enforcement may be suspended if well-supported reasons can be provided – eg, if it is determined that there is a certain probability that the proceeding will lead to the arbitration award being set aside. 12.3 Approach of the Courts The list of grounds for the courts to refuse enforce - ment in Section 39 is exhaustive and is generally construed narrowly by the courts. The primary rule is that it is irrelevant whether the court responsible for enforcement agrees with the arbitrators’ assessment. 13. Miscellaneous 13.1 Class Action or Group Arbitration The DAA does not contain provisions that allow for class-action or group arbitration. Articles 15 and 16 of the DIA Rules allow for the consolidation of various
12. Enforcement of an Award 12.1 New York Convention
Denmark adopted the New York Convention by rati - fying the Convention in 1972. Previously, the Danish implementing act set out a reservation to the applica - bility of the Convention. However, as of today, Den - mark’s domestic law fully incorporates the Conven - tion. 12.2 Enforcement Procedure Enforcement Procedure The matters of recognition and enforcement of awards are governed by Chapter 9 (Sections 38 and 39) of the DAA, which does not deviate substantively from Articles 35 and 36 of the UNCITRAL Model Law. The parties cannot agree to derogate from the applicability of these rules (see Section 2 (1) of the DAA). Subject to Section 39, an arbitral award is recognised as binding and is enforceable in line with the provi - sions regarding enforcement of judgments of the AJA, irrespective of the country in which it was made. This applies regardless of whether the award is made in a country that has acceded to the New York Conven - tion. Under Section 39 of the DAA, enforcement of an arbi - tral award may, at the request of a party, be refused if that party provides sufficient evidence that: • a party to the arbitration agreement was under some form of incapacity or the agreement is not valid; • the party against which the award is invoked was not given proper notice of the appointment of an arbitrator or of the arbitral proceedings or was otherwise unable to present its case; • the award deals with a dispute not contemplated by or not falling within the terms of the arbitra - tion agreement or it contains decisions on matters beyond the scope of the submission to arbitration; • the composition of the arbitral tribunal or the arbitral procedure was not in accordance with the
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