AZERBAIJAN Law and Practice Contributed by: Parviz Huseynov, GRATA International, Azerbaijan
eign Arbitral Awards without reservations by the Law of the Republic of Azerbaijan “On Accession to the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards” dated 9 November 1999, No 734-IQ. 12.2 Enforcement Procedure With respect to domestic arbitral awards, as noted in 10.1 Legal Requirements , unless otherwise provided by the arbitration agreement or the Law on Arbitra - tion, an arbitral award becomes legally binding on the date it is rendered. Such awards constitute enforce - ment documents under Azerbaijani law, and writs of execution issued on their basis must be submitted for enforcement within one month of their issuance. Enforcement is carried out by enforcement officers in accordance with the Law on Enforcement. In relation to foreign arbitral awards, it should be noted that, irrespective of the country in which it was ren - dered, a foreign arbitral award is binding and may be enforced upon a written application to the competent court. A party seeking recognition or enforcement of an arbitral award must submit the original award or a notarised copy thereof or, where the arbitration was administered by a permanent arbitral institution, a copy certified by that institution. The applicant must also submit the original arbitration agreement or a notarised copy thereof or, where this is not possible, any document evidencing the existence of the arbitra - tion agreement. Where the arbitral award or arbitra - tion agreement is in a foreign language, a notarised Azerbaijani translation of those documents must also be provided. Recognition or enforcement of a foreign arbitral award may, irrespective of the country in which it was ren - dered, be refused in whole or in part where the party against whom the award is invoked produces evi - dence that the award has not become binding on the parties or has been set aside or its enforcement sus - pended by a court of the country in which, or under the law of which, the award was made. Where an application for the setting-aside of the arbi - tral award has been submitted to a court of the coun - try in which, or under the law of which, the award was made, the court before which recognition or
enforcement is sought may, if it considers it appropri - ate, adjourn its decision. At the request of the party seeking recognition or enforcement, the court may also order the opposing party to provide appropriate security. As regards the immunity of the state or state authori - ties from the enforcement of arbitral awards, Azerbai - jani legislation does not contain any specific provi - sions recognising or regulating such immunity. 12.3 Approach of the Courts As mentioned in 1.1 Prevalence of Arbitration , Azer - baijani courts generally adopt a pro-enforcement approach towards the recognition and enforcement of foreign arbitral awards. An exception arises where grounds exist for refusing the recognition or enforce - ment of a foreign arbitral award, in whole or in part. Those grounds are set out below. • Where the party against whom the award has been rendered submits the following evidence to the court examining the application for recognition or enforcement: (a) one of the parties to the arbitration agreement was, under the law applicable to that party, under some incapacity at the time of conclud - ing the arbitration agreement, or the arbitration agreement is invalid under the law to which the parties have subjected it or, failing any indica - tion thereon, under the law of the country in which the arbitral award was rendered; (b) the party against whom 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; (c) the arbitral award deals with a dispute not contemplated by, or not falling within the terms of, the arbitration agreement, or contains decisions on matters beyond the scope of the arbitration agreement or the claims submitted to arbitration (provided that, where the deci - sions on matters submitted to arbitration can be separated from those on matters not so submitted, the part of the award containing decisions on matters falling within the scope of the arbitration agreement or the claims sub - mitted to arbitration may be recognised and
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