Enforcement of Arbitral Awards

Ultimately, if the losing party will not comply with the terms of an award made against him, the ‘winner’ will need to enforce the award. In the absence of an available right of set-off, or other direct means of enforcement, a successful party will usually seek to enforce the award against the losing party’s assets through the national court of the jurisdiction in which the assets are situated.

There is a distinction between recognition, where a party will produce the award to the court and ask the court to recognise it as valid and binding upon the parties in respect of the issues with which it dealt, and enforcement, where the court is requested to enforce compliance with the terms of the award.

Enforcing an award in the seat of the arbitration is usually a fairly straightforward process. Generally, courts will enforce the award in the same way as they would a domestic arbitral award. The starting point for enforcing an award in a state other than that of the seat of the arbitration is usually (but not always) the New York Convention.