SPAIN Law and Practice Contributed by: Alfonso López-Ibor, Pablo Henríquez de Luna, Virginia Jover and Pedro Echeguren, López-Ibor Abogados
costs, the CPA’s enforcement costs provisions will be applied in accordance with Article 50.2 of the Legal Co-operation Act. In general terms, costs associated with the enforce - ment of third-country judgments are higher due to the length of the proceedings, by virtue of the required declaration of enforceability. 3.6 Challenging Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Once the defendant is served, they have 30 days in which to file their opposition to the enforcement. The grounds for challenging the enforcement of an EU or third-country judgment are set out in 3.3 Categories of Foreign Judgments Not Enforced . The defendant can appeal the decision to the Appeal Court and to the Supreme Court. Under Spanish law, and as a result of Regulation Rome I on the law applicable to contractual obliga - tions, the time limitation for contractual claims will be determined by the governing law of the contract, which can obviously be a law other than Spanish law. The Spanish time limitation for contracts is five years. This substantive limitation will be applicable to judgments coming from EU countries. However, in the case of third-county judgments, bilateral treaties should apply. If there is no applicable bilateral treaty, Article 50.2 of the Legal Co-operation Act provides that the limitation period for the enforcement of third- country judgments is governed by the CPA. Article 518 of the CPA also establishes a five-year limitation period. 4. Arbitral Awards 4.1 Legal Issues Concerning Enforcement of Arbitral Awards The European Parliamentary Research Service brief - ing and the Commission’s grounds for rejecting the UK application to the Lugano Convention 2007 have no impact on the recognition and enforcement of arbitral awards, nor does Brexit, because arbitration does not come within the scope of the Recast Brus - sels Regulation or the Lugano Convention.
Arbitral awards in Spain may be enforced on equal terms as court rulings. It must be noted that arbitral awards cannot be challenged based on substantive reasons (ie, on account of the legal reasoning of the award). However, arbitral awards may be set aside if the appli - cant alleges and furnishes due proof that: • the arbitration agreement does not exist or is inva - lid; • the applicant was not given proper notice of the appointment of the arbitrator or of the proceedings; • the award contains decisions on questions that were not submitted to arbitration; • the dispute is not apt for settlement by arbitration; or • the award is in conflict with public policy. Awards may be enforced even when an action has been brought to set them aside. Nevertheless, in such cases, the party may request the suspension of the enforcement from the competent court, provided that they provide security for the value of the sentence plus damages that stem from the delay. 4.2 Variations in Approach to Enforcement of Arbitral Awards Spanish legislation does not distinguish between dif - ferent categories of arbitral awards, so the provisions relating to the enforcement of these resolutions are applicable regardless of their nature. 4.3 Categories of Arbitral Awards Not Enforced The only arbitral awards that may not be enforced are those that by the nature of their adopted decision are not subject to enforcement. Therefore, arbitral awards that dismiss the case or merely grant a declaration devoid of material orders may not be enforced. The enforcement of awards may be suspended if the corresponding action to set them aside has been brought forth, and if the interested party provides security for the value of the sentence as well as dam - ages stemming from the delay resulting from the sus - pension.
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