FRANCE Law and Practice Contributed by: Barbara Levy, Paul Talbourdet and Alison Vogt, De Pardieu Brocas Maffei
five-year limitation period that generally applies to personal actions and should be considered to apply to the filing of legal proceedings for the enforcement of domestic awards in France. There is a debate con - cerning whether the limitation period may apply to the enforcement of international awards in France. The Cour de cassation is currently looking into this issue following an appeal ( pourvoi ) against the Court of Appeal of Versailles’ decision dated 10 December 2024, which held that the five-year statute of limita - tions applied to the enforcement of international arbi - tration awards. A decision from the Cour de cassation is expected shortly. The provisions pertaining to the recognition and enforcement of a domestic arbitral award are set out in Article 1487 et seq of the Code of Civil Procedure. First, the party seeking to rely upon the arbitral award must be able to prove the existence thereof. This is a basic requirement and will be easily satisfied upon production of the arbitral award itself, together with the arbitration agreement. The second condition to the recognition or enforcement of the arbitral award is that it must not be manifestly contrary to public policy. Therefore, a domestic arbitral award may be enforced by virtue of an exequatur from the tribunal judiciaire in whose jurisdiction the arbitral award was given, and the party wishing to enforce a domestic arbitral award must produce the original award, together with the arbitration agreement (or duly authenticated copies of such documents). Exequatur can also result from the dismissal of an appeal for annulment of the arbitration award. On 7 June 2023, the Cour de cassation clari - fied that the appeal must have been dismissed and not declared inadmissible. A judgment granting an order of exequatur is not sub - ject to any review. A judgment refusing an order of exequatur is subject to appeal within one month of service (or within three months for parties domiciled abroad). This procedure has been reformed by Decree No 2023-1391 of 29 December 2023, applicable to appeals lodged from 1 September 2024. In accord - ance with the provisions of Article 901 of the French Civil Procedure Code, the statement of appeal will have to contain the subject matter of the appeal (ie, in the case of an appeal against an exequatur order,
the reversal of the order). The statement of appeal will also have to criticise the “operative provisions of the judgment” ( chefs du dispositif du jugement ) – in other words, to challenge the refusal to grant exequatur. A successful appeal against the award will result in its revocation by the court of appeal so that the award becomes unenforceable in France. An international arbitral award will be enforced in France on the same conditions provided for domes - tic awards – ie, if the party relying on it can prove its existence and if such recognition or enforcement is not manifestly contrary to international public policy. In a judgment rendered on 17 May 2023, the Cour de cassation clarified that it is the solution given to the dispute that is tested for compliance with inter - national public policy and not the reasoning used by the arbitrators. As with domestic arbitrations, an international arbi - tral award may be enforced by virtue of an exequatur from the tribunal judiciaire in whose jurisdiction the international arbitral award was given, if it was given in France. If the arbitral award was given in a foreign country, it may be enforced by virtue of an exequatur from the Paris Tribunal Judiciaire . A party wishing to enforce an international arbitral award must produce the original award, together with the arbitration agree - ment (or duly authenticated copies of such docu - ments). All these documents must be translated into French by a certified translator, if requested. Again, an appeal against an exequatur must be brought before the court of appeal within one month from the date of proper service of the exequatur (or three months for parties domiciled abroad). When it comes to enforcing an arbitral award against the assets of a debtor in France, the governing leg - islation is the law on civil enforcement procedures described in 3.4 Process of Enforcing Foreign Judg- ments . 4.5 Costs and Time Taken to Enforce Arbitral Awards As stated in 4.4 Process of Enforcing Arbitral Awards , because of the minimal checks necessary to obtain an exequatur of an arbitral award (whether domestic or international), the costs incurred in the related pro -
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