SWITZERLAND Law and Practice Contributed by: Yves Klein, Monfrini Bitton Klein
4.6 Challenging Enforcement of Arbitral Awards Challenging Enforcement of a Domestic Arbitral Award The grounds for challenging a domestic arbitral award are essentially as follows: • lack of a valid arbitration clause; • lack of proper notice of the arbitration proceedings; and • a stay order by the Federal Court pending appeal. Challenging Enforcement of a Foreign Arbitral Award The grounds for challenging a foreign arbitral award are strictly limited by Article V of the New York Con - vention, namely: • incapacity of the parties to the arbitration agree - ment; • lack of due process; • extra potestatem, ultra petita or extra petita; • violation of the arbitral procedure; • the award has not yet become binding on the par - ties, or has been set aside or suspended; • lack of arbitrability of the subject matter under Swiss law; and • breach of Swiss public policy.
Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards The enforcement of foreign arbitral awards is essen - tially the same as that for foreign judgments under the PILA. The documents required to enforce a foreign arbitral award are specified in Article IV of the New York Con - vention, namely: • the authenticated original award or a certified copy; and • the original arbitration agreement referred to or a certified copy. In addition, a translation must be provided if the docu - ments are not in a Swiss national language (German, French or Italian) or in English. 4.5 Costs and Time Taken to Enforce Arbitral Awards While not procedurally more complex than domestic judgments, the enforcement of foreign arbitral awards tends to be more contested, thus leading to costlier and more protracted litigation. The fees and adverse party costs and time mentioned under 2.3 Costs and Time Taken to Enforce Domestic Judgments should therefore be doubled. The costs and time taken in the enforcement of domestic arbitral awards are essen - tially the same as those for domestic judgments, save for the possibility of challenging the arbitration clause.
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