Contradiction to Public Policy as a Ground for Refusal to Recognize and Enforce Foreign Arbitral Awards and Court Decisions

Kuimchide D.D. Contradiction to Public Policy as a Ground for Refusal to Enforce and Recognize Foreign Arbitral Awards and Court Decisions This graduate paper is aimed at considering theoretical and practical aspects of effect of a public policy clause. The main objectives of the paper are: (a) analysis of legal nature of the public policy clause and approaches to its determination; (b) consideration of various aspects of the public policy clause; (c) identification of principles and criteria of application of the public policy clause. This graduate paper consists of an introduction, two chapters, conclusion and list of authorities. Based on the research the following conclusions were made: (a) there is no unified approach to determination of the public policy clause despite its universal nature; (b) only contradiction to the international aspect of the public policy that includes generally recognized principles of law and a basis of the law of each state could be regarded as a ground for refusal of recognition and enforcement of foreign arbitral awards and court decisions; (c) only procedural aspect of the public policy could be used for the purposes of refusal of recognition and enforcement of foreign arbitral awards and court decisions; (d) for procedural purposes contradiction of a decision or award to the mandatory rules of the particular state in some cases could be regarded as a ground for refusal of recognition and enforcement of foreign arbitral awards and court decisions despite the fact that effect of the public policy clause and mandatory rules in material sense is different; (e) analysis of the Russian and foreign case law shows that there is a certain degree of similarity between approaches used in these countries, however, more cases of contradiction to the public policy were considered by the foreign judicial authorities. Academic Supervisor: Filatova M.A., S.J.C., Assistant Professor, Chair of Judiciary, Faculty of Law, NRU HSE