CYPRUS Law and Practice Contributed by: George Middleton and Christoforos Iosif, Chryssafinis & Polyviou LLC
award and/or setting it aside mirror the grounds of Article 5 of the New York Convention. In addition, Law 121 (I)/2000 and Part 44 of the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) also govern the recognition and enforcement of arbitral awards. 4.2 Variations in Approach to Enforcement of Arbitral Awards Variations in approach to enforcement of arbitral awards depend on whether the award is a domestic or foreign award and, if it is a foreign award, whether a particular convention applies, allowing for recognition and enforcement. Similar to the registration/recognition of foreign judg - ments, the recognition of foreign arbitral awards from jurisdictions with which the Republic of Cyprus has a bilateral treaty for mutual recognition of arbitral awards is provided for through Law 121 (I)/2000, which states that the successful party seeking to register the arbi - tral awards has to file an application by summons. The defendant/respondent can proceed with filing an objection, and the court will proceed with issuing its judgment regarding the registration of the judgment. 4.3 Categories of Arbitral Awards Not Enforced The first step when considering whether an award will be enforced is to look at its form and whether it meets the specific criteria listed in the different arbitration laws and rules. 4.4 Process of Enforcing Arbitral Awards As per Section 21 of the International Arbitration Law, an arbitral award can be enforced, with the permission of the court, in the same way as a judicial decision/ judicial order. Generally speaking, courts in Cyprus take a non-intervention, pro-enforcement approach. Once an arbitral award has been awarded, one can expect the execution to take one of the following forms (in relation to monetary claims): • seizure and sale of movable property; • sale of immovable property or charging of immov - able property;
• ordering the delivery of movable or immovable property; • examining the judgment debtor in the court, lead - ing to the issuance of a court order for payment in instalments, or an encumbrance on company shares and stocks; or • judgment creditors may also consider applying for the liquidation of companies where the registered judgment or award relates to legal entities regis - tered in Cyprus. 4.5 Costs and Time Taken to Enforce Arbitral Awards The costs involved typically mirror the costs of enforc - ing a judicial award and/or decision. Enforcement of both domestic and foreign arbitral awards requires the payment of legal fees, stamp duty and service expenses, and the amounts will depend on whether the procedure will be challenged/defended. In cases where the enforcement of the award is permitted, there are also costs involved in enforcing against the defendant’s assets. The timeframe depends on whether the applicant also files for an interim freezing injunction (in which case, the interim order application will usually be adjudicated first); however, it generally takes between six and 12 months for the application to be fully adjudicated. 4.6 Challenging Enforcement of Arbitral Awards Cyprus courts can refuse the recognition and registra - tion of an international arbitral award only on the basis of the grounds stipulated in Article V of the New York Convention, as transposed in Law 84/1979, and Arti - cle 36 of Law 101/87, which are the following: • incapacity of the parties or invalidity of the arbitra - tion agreement; • failure to give proper notice of the appointment of the arbitrator or of the arbitration proceedings to the party against whom the award is made, or that a party was otherwise unable to present their case; • the award deals with a difference not contemplated by or not falling within the terms of the submission to arbitration, or it contains decisions on matters beyond the scope of the submission to arbitration; • the composition of the arbitration authority or the arbitration procedure was not in accordance with
• sequestration of property; • attachment of property;
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