HUNGARY Law and Practice Contributed by: István Varga and Viktor Előd Cserép, PROVARIS Varga & Partners
enforcement-related actions, actions chal- lenging the decision of the competent local authority in possessory matters); and • procedures within the scope of the Act on Administrative Court Procedure. 13.3 Circumstances to Challenge an Arbitral Award Arbitral awards may be challenged before the Metropolitan District Court (of Budapest) by means of an action for setting aside, and also before the arbitral tribunal by means of a request for retrial. The setting aside litigation is a one- instance procedure yielding res iudicata right at the district court level, which can be challenged only by the extraordinary remedy of revision to the Kúria . The provisions on the action for setting aside have been adopted from the UNCITRAL Model Law. All subjective and objective grounds for setting aside have been adopted. Recently (as of June 2023), a new ground has been introduced: when the arbitral tribunal has not taken into con- sideration an expert determination provided by a so-called Expert Body for the Certification of Performance, including the grounds for relying on or disregarding such an expert determination. The time limit for filing an application for setting aside is 60 days from the receipt of the arbitral award (or any correction, interpretation or addi- tional award). Upon request by a party, the court may suspend the setting aside procedure for a maximum of 90 days and remit the case to the arbitral tribunal to give the arbitral tribunal an opportunity to resume the arbitral proceedings or to take such other action as, in the arbitral tribunal’s opinion, will eliminate the grounds for setting aside.
Arbitral retrial is a separate means of recourse that is available within one year from the receipt of the award if a party invokes facts or evidence that it could not have invoked in the arbitration through no fault of its own, provided that the fact or evidence could have resulted in a deci- sion more favourable for that party. Requests for retrial are heard by the arbitral tribunal itself, which may either uphold its award or annul it in whole or in part and render a new award. The arbitral retrial as a unique additional means of recourse can be – and is indeed in most cases – excluded in the parties’ arbitration agreement. 13.4 Procedure for Enforcing Domestic and Foreign Arbitration Enforcement of Domestic Arbitral Awards The Hungarian Arbitration Act provides that arbi- tral awards rendered in Hungary have the same effect as final and binding court judgments. No additional exequatur requirement that would entail the review of the award, or a double- exequatur, is imposed on domestic awards. However, so that the award can be enforced, the competent court must issue a declaration of enforceability of the award, which is a for- mal prerequisite of enforcement by a bailiff. In this formalistic exequatur procedure both the request for a declaration of enforceability and the decision of the court are based on a form. Grounds for the refusal of enforcement may be invoked by making recourse against the dec- laration of enforceability, which may be made by means of a request for the withdrawal of the declaration, the decision on withdrawal being subject to appeal too. The same declaration of enforceability must be issued by the competent court in the case of a court judgment as well, regardless of whether it was rendered in Hun- gary or abroad. The prerequisites of issuing a declaration of enforceability are the same (see
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