ReSolution:In Brief
the same way as domestic awards, regardless of the jurisdiction, and provide common legislative standards for doing so. A non-domestic award is regarded as an award which imports some foreign element into the arbitral proceedings, such as another state’s procedural law.
A further aim of the Convention is to require courts to deny parties access to the court system, when granting such access would be in contravention of the parties’ agreement to refer disputes to an arbitral tribunal.
More information on the New York Convention can be found here.
Three new signatories to the New York Convention: The Kingdom of Tonga, Ethiopia and Sierra Leone.
On 12 June 2020, the Kingdom of Tonga became the 164th State Party to the Convention. It came into force in Tonga on 12 September 2020 and will be applicable to arbitral awards issued on or after that date. This will be a welcome development for parties involved in international business disputes, as it means they can be certain that arbitration awards will be enforced in Tonga.
The move is a reflection of the growing recognition in the Pacific of the importance of arbitration in international dispute resolution. Tonga has historically had no legal framework to resolve cross-border disputes through international arbitration and this has stifled trade and investment in the nation. Pacific region member states such as New Zealand, Australia, the USA, China, South Korea and Japan are key trading partners of Tonga. For those states, there is now a credible dispute resolution and enforcement regime that will overcome the perceived and real uncertainties of settling commercial disputes in Tonga and enforcing arbitration awards through the local
5 www.nzdrc.co.nz
New York Convention Updates
The United Nations Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (New York Convention) came into force in 1959 and is widely accepted as the foundation instrument governing international arbitration. Under this convention, contracting states are required to give effect and recognise arbitration agreements as binding, and recognise and enforce arbitral awards made in other states, pursuant to the rules and conditions outlined in the convention. Since its establishment, the New York Convention has significantly contributed to the increasing use of international arbitration as parties’ preferred method of resolving commercial disputes.
The principal aim of the New York Convention is to ensure that foreign and non-domestic arbitral awards are recognised and enforced in