NORWAY Law and Practice Contributed by: Christian Reusch, Øystein Nore Nyhus, Therese Sætre Løfsgaard and Oda Lauksund Engamo, Simonsen Vogt Wiig
3.6 Challenging Enforcement of Foreign Judgments The foreign judgment must be enforceable in its coun - try of origin in order to be enforceable in Norway; whether or not this requires the judgment to be final and binding depends on the rules of the country of origin. The creditor will have to provide proof of this to the court. Foreign judgments will not be recognised in Norway if they are contrary to Norwegian mandatory laws or offensive to the Norwegian legal system (ordre public). A breach of fundamental rules of civil procedure in Norway can be relevant in this respect. If the judgment was given in default of appearance of the defendant, it is a requirement that the documents instituting the proceedings were duly served on the defendant. Furthermore, foreign judgments will not be enforced in Norway if such enforcement would violate the terms of the treaty upon which the enforcement is based. 4. Arbitral Awards 4.1 Legal Issues Concerning Enforcement of Arbitral Awards All arbitral awards are enforceable in Norway, regard - less of the country of origin and whether or not there is a treaty entered into between Norway and the country of origin. Therefore, there is no requirement for the arbitral award to be from a country that is a party to the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (the New York Convention on Arbitration). 4.2 Variations in Approach to Enforcement of Arbitral Awards In Norway, there is a different approach to enforcing domestic arbitral awards and foreign arbitral awards: domestic arbitral awards follow the rules of domes - tic judgments, while foreign arbitral awards follow the rules of foreign judgments. See previous sections that further outline these variations, especially 2.2 Enforcement of Domestic Judgments and 3.4 Pro- cess of Enforcing Foreign Judgments .
4.3 Categories of Arbitral Awards Not Enforced See 4.6 Challenging Enforcement of Arbitral Awards . In addition, declaratory arbitral awards cannot be enforced, nor can awards that are too vague. See 2.5 Challenging Enforcement of Domestic Judgments for more detail. 4.4 Process of Enforcing Arbitral Awards In order to enforce a foreign arbitral award in Norway, a petition to declare the award enforceable must be sent to the local district court. After the district court has declared the award enforceable, the petition will be sent to the local enforcement office for enforce - ment in the same manner as domestic judgments. 4.5 Costs and Time Taken to Enforce Arbitral Awards The timeline for the enforcement of foreign arbitral awards will be about the same as for domestic judg - ments, but some extra time must be expected to obtain the declaration of enforceability. The costs involved will also be more or less the same, in addition to any required translation costs. 4.6 Challenging Enforcement of Arbitral Awards The options available for challenging arbitral awards are as follows: • one of the parties to the arbitration agreement lacks legal capacity, or the arbitration agreement is invalid under the laws to which the parties have agreed to subject it or, failing such agree - ment, under the law of the jurisdiction in which the arbitral award was made (the arbitration clause is considered a separate agreement and may be valid/invalid regardless of whether or not the rest of the agreement is valid/invalid); • the party against which the arbitral award is being invoked was not given sufficient notice of the appointment of an arbitrator or of the arbitration, or was not given an opportunity to present their views on the case; • the arbitral award falls outside the scope of the jurisdiction of the arbitral tribunal;
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