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Yargitay, General Assembly of Civil Chambers, 8 November 2023, Case No. 2022/660, Decision No. 2023/1066

(Parties not indicated)

08 - 11 - 2023

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Yearbook Yearbook Commercial Arbitration, S. W. Schill (ed.), Vol. XL (2025)
Jurisdiction Turkey
Summary

By a 2012 award on liability and a 2013 award on quantum, an ICC tribunal had, respectively, found that the respondent had fraudulently had the appellant’s shares in a holding company sold at a low price to third parties the respondent controlled, and had awarded damages. A first instance court had denied exequatur of both awards, finding that the 2013 award violated due process because it was based on a report to which only respondent’s counsel had been given access, and that the 2012 award contradicted a Turkish criminal court decision that had acquitted the respondent from the accusation of fraud for lack of evidence. The Court of Cassation had first reversed this decision in its entirety (Turkey 6) and had then reinstated it in respect of the 2013 award. The court of first instance had issued a resistance decision, resisting the reversal. The General Assembly of the Court of Cassation reversed the resistance decision. While a foreign award contradicting a final Turkish court decision would violate public policy, the decision of the criminal court in this case had merely found that the evidence was not sufficient to prove fraud. Hence, there was no contradiction.

Related topics
502

The court discusses the principle that the merits of the award may not be reviewed and that the court may only carry out a limited review of the award to ascertain grounds for refusal.

No re-examination of the merits of the arbitral award
518

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.

Paragraph 2 - Distinction domestic-international public policy
524

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.

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