International commercial arbitration is a method of dispute resolution that ends with a decision on the subject matter of the dispute, which is binding on the parties to the dispute and to which the parties most often act voluntarily.
Regardless of the advantages that international arbitration offers to the parties, the efficiency of this method of dispute resolution depends, first and foremost, on the possibility of rapid and efficient recognition and enforcement of arbitral awards. For this reason, a large number of international conventions regulating international commercial arbitration attach the greatest importance to the recognition and enforcement of foreign arbitral awards.
In the Republic of North Macedonia, the issue of recognition and enforcement of foreign arbitration awards is regulated by the Law on International Commercial Arbitration of the Republic of Macedonia, which does not offer different solutions than what is provided for in the New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards, of June 10, 1958.
According to Article 37, paragraph 3 of the Law on International Commercial Arbitration of the Republic of Macedonia, it is stipulated that:
“The provisions of the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards signed on June 10, 1958 in New York (“Official Gazette of the SFRY, International Treaties” No. 11/81) shall apply to the recognition and enforcement of foreign arbitral awards.”
The New York Convention provides for two types of conditions for the recognition and enforcement of foreign arbitral awards:
1. Formal:
- duly certified original of the award, or a copy of that original, which meets all the conditions necessary for its authenticity;
- original of the contract, or a copy of the arbitration agreement, which meets all the conditions necessary for its authenticity; and
- translation by a certified translator of the above-mentioned documents if they are not drawn up in the official language of the country in which their recognition and enforcement is sought.
2. Merits, which are divided into two types of presumptions (conditions):
- conditions whose existence is determined upon the initiative of the parties – according to which the recognition of the arbitration award will be refused, if the party opposing the recognition proves that: there is no valid arbitration agreement or one of the parties is incapable of concluding an arbitration agreement; if there is a disregard for the right of defense; if there is an excess of the mandate of the arbitration; if there is a violation of the rules of the arbitration procedure; if the arbitration award is not binding on the parties or it has been annulled by the country of origin, and
- conditions whose existence is determined ex officio – according to which the recognition of the foreign arbitration award will be refused if the dispute was not suitable for resolution by arbitration (was not arbitrable) and the recognition and enforcement of the arbitration award would be contrary to the legal order of the Republic of North Macedonia.
Taking into account all these assumptions (conditions), it will be decided whether the foreign arbitral award will be recognized and enforced in the Republic of North Macedonia.