CYPRUS Law and Practice Contributed by: George Middleton, Christoforos Iosif and Chrystalla Hadjigeorgiou, Chryssafinis & Polyviou LLC
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 to 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 immovable property; • sequestration of property; • attachment of 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
matically. Timeframes will vary depending on whether the judgment creditor files the application directly (if the conditions under the treaty are met) or whether the designated authority files the application. 3.6 Challenging Enforcement of Foreign Judgments The grounds on which a party can resist and challenge the recognition and enforcement of a foreign judgment are limited. These include (not exhaustively): • the judgment is not a judgment to which this part of the law applies, or was registered in contraven - tion of the law; • lack of jurisdiction in the courts of the country of origin; • the defendant in the original proceedings did not receive sufficient notice to enable him/her to defend the proceedings and did not appear; • the judgment was obtained by fraud; • the enforcement is contrary to public policy in the country of the registering court; or • the rights under the judgment are not vested in the person who made the application for enforcement. 4. Arbitral Awards 4.1 Legal Issues Concerning Enforcement of Arbitral Awards Cypriot arbitration laws include Law 101/1987 on International Commercial Arbitration which is based on the 1985 UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration and Cap. 4 – Arbitration Law which governs domestic arbitration and mirrors the English Arbitration Act of 1950. In addition, the New York Convention (1958) was incorporated into Cyprus law via Ratification Law 84/1979. The grounds of arbi - tration laws for resisting the enforcement of an arbitral 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.
121 CHAMBERS.COM
Powered by FlippingBook