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SPAIN 103
Tribunal Superior de Justicia de Madrid, 19 January 2021, No. 1/2021
(Mebel Service SL v. Made for Stores SL)
SPAIN 103
The Court granted enforcement of an award rendered under the auspices of the ICAC Ukraine, finding that the applicant had complied with the conditions of Art. IV of the New York Convention, and that there was no ground for refusing enforcement. In particular, there had been no violation of due process because the arbitral institution had decided that Ukrainian would be the language of the arbitration, taking into account the fact that the parties' contract had been drafted in both Spanish and Ukrainian, and that the defendant had not supported its request that the language be English other than by arguing that it did not know Ukrainian. The Court held that the defendant ought to have been more diligent, and that its passivity did not justify a finding of a violation of due process. Further, the Court denied the objection that enforcement of the award would be at odds with Spanish public policy – which, the Court stressed, meant the fundamental rights of the Spanish legal system. By awarding contractual penalties, the arbitral tribunal had applied the express provision in the parties' agreement, and its decision to award the costs of the arbitration was permitted under the Spanish Arbitration Law.
The court discusses the general conditions the Convention imposes on a petitioner for seeking recognition and enforcement of an arbitral award – namely, the submission of the original arbitration agreement or arbitral award or a certified copy thereof – and examines in general whether these conditions were complied in the case at issue.
Due process: The court discusses various irregularities affecting due process, including letters not sent, names of arbitrators or experts not communicated, language of proceedings and communications, etc.
Public policy: The court discusses the meaning of (international as compared to domestic) public policy, generally defined as the basic notions of morality and justice of the enforcement State.
Public policy: The court discusses the effect of other alleged violations of public policy on the recognition and enforcement of an arbitral award, such as contradictory reasons, manifest disregard of the law (US), etc.