GERMANY Law and Practice Contributed by: Tanja Pfitzner, Fabian von Schlabrendorff and Niklas-Arne Hecht, Pfitzner Legal
ings had been closed – eg, a set-off situation, an oral hearing must be held. Foreign arbitral awards are to be recognised and enforced according to the New York Conven- tion 1958; however the formal requirements of the New York Convention, such as submitting a certified translation of the arbitration agree- ment and the award, need not be fulfilled. The requesting party bears the burden of proof as to the existence of a valid arbitration agreement, and the court will rule on that question without being bound by the finding of the foreign arbi- tral tribunal. If the court denies enforcement, it cannot set aside the award but can only declare that it cannot be recognised in Germany. If the denial is based on a procedural defect which is subsequently remedied, a further application for recognition and enforcement is possible. 14. Outlook 14.1 Proposals for Dispute Resolution Reform Commercial Courts From 1 January 2025, Commercial Courts will be established in Germany. These Commercial Courts are specialised senates at the higher regional courts that will be able to rule as a court of first instance on civil disputes between com- panies (with the exception of intellectual prop- erty, copyright and claims under the law against unfair competition), in connection with company acquisitions and on directors’ and officers’ liabil- ity suits. The jurisdiction of these Commercial Courts can be agreed between the parties by means of a choice of court agreement for dis- putes of this kind with an amount in dispute of EUR500,000 or more. At the regional courts, specialised Commercial Chambers are to be set up for all other disputes for which the regional
courts have jurisdiction. At these Commercial Courts and Commercial Chambers, proceed- ings, including the decision, can be conducted in German or English. The new law also provides proven instruments of arbitration for efficient litigation. At an early organisational meeting (Case Management Conference), agreements can be reached on the structuring and course of the proceedings. If the parties so request, a verbatim protocol of the oral hearing and the taking of evidence can be prepared. The offer is complemented by specialised staffing, sepa- rate consulting rooms for the parties and modern technical equipment which allows for videocon- ferencing and state-of-the-art presentations. The excellent training of German judges, the independence and acceptance of the German judiciary and the good calculability of the risk of litigation under German civil procedure law are thus available to both domestic and inter- national parties for the resolution of commer- cial disputes at the highest level of quality. The good experience gained from the more than 700 proceedings conducted by the Stuttgart Com- mercial Court, which has been in existence since 2020, is encouraging. The average duration of proceedings there was six-and-a-half months, and the rate of appeal is below 10%, which can be largely attributed to the good preparation as well as the legal and economic understanding of the specialised judges for the proceedings. Commercial Courts are currently planned in Ber- lin, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Munich and Stuttgart. Digitalisation Several mass proceedings in recent years, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic, have chal- lenged the traditional practice of individual paper file processing in court and face-to-face hear- ings in the courtroom. The digitalisation of the judiciary is at the forefront of the reform discus-
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