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On July 2, the closing ceremony of the 22nd Diplomatic Conference of Hague Conference on Private International Law was held at the Hague Peace Palace, marking the final conclusion of the negotiations on the Hague Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters. More than 400 representatives from more than 70 countries, the European Union and more than 10 international organizations participated the Conference. In the future, there will be a situation in which the troika of the New York Convention, the Singapore Convention, the Judgment Convention (including the Convention on the Choice of Court Agreement and the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters) will go hand in hand with each other in the pattern of international dispute settlement.
The closing ceremony was presided by Chairman of the Diplomatic Conference and Chairman of the Standing Committee on Private International Law of the Government of the Netherlands, attended and addressed by Dutch Foreign Secretary Brock, and the Secretary-General of the Hague Conference on Private International Private Law, Benasony, etc. The Vice-President of the Diplomatic Conference, the Head of the Chinese delegation, the Ambassador to the Netherlands Xu Hong, the members of the Chinese delegation, together with about 200 participants from various countries attended the closing ceremony, and signed the final document of the Conference.
During the Conference, the Chinese delegation participated constructively in the negotiations, firmly supported multilateralism, played the role of bridge link, actively built consensus among all parties, and took the initiative to lead the formulation of rules. A number of proposals raised by the Chinese delegation such as on antitrust and intellectual property rights were adopted by the Conference, which made positive contributions to the conclusion of the Convention.
In his general speech and speech for representatives of all countries, Ambassador XU Hong stressed that since the world is multipolar and the world economic globalization cannot be reversed, all parties should take the Belt and Road Initiative as an opportunity to carry out mutually beneficial cooperation in accordance with the concept of multilateralism and the principle of achieving shared growth through discussion and collaboration, and to make private international law keep pace with the times through pioneering and innovating, and ultimately benefit the people of all countries.
The Hague Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters is the world's first international instrument to comprehensively establish a uniform set of core rules on recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments in civil and commercial matters, which is to facilitate the effective recognition and enforcement of such judgments. The adoption of the convention will provide higher quality, more effective and lower cost judicial guarantees for international civil and commercial activities, including international trade and cross-border commerce, strengthen the effectiveness of domestic court decisions, provide greater predictability and certainty in relation to the global circulation of foreign judgments, and have a far-reaching impact on international civil and commercial judicial cooperation.
Since 1992, the Hague Conference has been negotiating the Convention. It takes nearly 30 years of hard work. At this Diplomatic Conference, all parties had a strong willingness to reach a convention, demonstrated maximum flexibility, and adopted all the provisions of the convention by consensus. The Convention is the first international instrument to establish the uniform rules of international circulation of civil and commercial judgments, which systematically stipulates the scope and conditions for the recognition and enforcement of foreign civil and commercial judgments. There are four chapters and 32 articles of the Convention, which mainly include the following aspects:
First, the purpose of the Convention. The preface states that the purpose of the Convention is to provide higher quality, more effective and lower cost judicial guarantees for international civil and commercial activities. In order to highlight multilateralism and expand the influence of the Convention, the Conference, at the suggestion of the Chinese delegation, agreed to add the expression "to facilitate rule-based multilateral trade and investment" in the preamble, which was the first time that the Hague Convention had adopted that wording.
Second, the scope of application of the Convention. The Convention shall apply to the recognition and enforcement in one Contracting State of a judgment given by a court of another Contracting State. However, the Convention shall be excluded from the application of intellectual property rights, privacy rights and other matters of great disagreement. Among them, because of the great differences between the parties on whether the convention applies to antitrust matters, the negotiations were once deadlocked. Through the coordination and good offices of the Chinese delegation, all parties agreed to include specific monopoly matters, which is an important contribution of the Chinese delegation in promoting the conclusion of the Convention.
Third, the basis of jurisdiction. Article 5 lists the basis of jurisdiction for recognition and enforcement of a judgment, including the person against whom recognition or enforcement is sought was habitually resident in the State of origin at the time that person became a party to the proceedings in the court of origin, the defendant expressly consented to the jurisdiction of the court of origin in the course of the proceedings in which the judgment was given, the place where the contract is or should be performed, place of tort, and so on. Article 6 defines the exclusive jurisdiction over the real right of immovable property, that is, a judgment that ruled on rights in rem in immovable property shall be recognized and enforced if and only if the property is situated in the State of origin. Article 7 also provides for the grounds for Refusal of recognition and enforcement, including violations of the legitimate right of reply of the defendant, violations of the public policy of the requested State, etc., in order to protect the legitimate rights and interests of the parties and to take into account the concerns of the requested State.
Fourth, flexible arrangements. In order to maximize cooperation, Article 15 provides that, in cases where the exclusive jurisdiction is not violated, this Convention does not prevent the recognition or enforcement of judgments under national law. In order to take into account the concerns of all parties and encourage States to accede to the Convention, Articles 18 and 19 allow a State to declare that the Convention does not apply to a particular matter, and allow the State is a party to the proceedings, and that Article 23 provides that the Convention shall be interpreted so far as possible to be compatible with other treaties in force for Contracting States, whether concluded before or after this Convention.
If you have any judgement in civil and commercial matters which is in need of recognition and enforcement in foreign countries, you may ask a lawyer for help.