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The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has given its judgement in the Gazprom case, where it has answered questions of the Supreme Court of Lithuania and stated that recognition and enforcement of foreign arbitral awards is excluded from the scope of Brussels I Regulation.

The Court recalled that it was held in its judgment in Allianz and Generali Assicurazioni Generali (C‑185/07) that an injunction issued by a court of a Member State restraining a party from having recourse to proceedings other than arbitration and from continuing proceedings brought before a court of another Member State, is not compatible with Brussels I Regulation. Every court seized itself determines, under the applicable rules, whether it has jurisdiction to resolve the dispute before it. A different interpretation would run counter to the trust which the Member States accord to one another’s legal systems and judicial institutions and could be liable to bar an applicant who considers that an arbitration agreement is void, inoperative or incapable of being performed from access to the court.

The European Court of Justice separated the issues arising in the present case from those of the above-mentioned case. It noted that that the issue under consideration here is whether it would be compatible with that Regulation for a court of a Member State to recognise and enforce an arbitral award ordering a party to arbitration proceedings to reduce the scope of the claims formulated in proceedings pending before a court of that Member State.

The ECJ stated that it should be remembered first of all that Brussels I Regulation governs only conflicts of jurisdiction between courts of the Member States. In proceedings for recognition and enforcement of an arbitral award, there can be no question of an infringement of the principle of mutual trust accorded by the Member States to their respective legal systems and judicial institutions or denying a party judicial protection as that party can contest the recognition or enforcement.

The ECJ underlined that proceedings for the recognition and enforcement of an arbitral award such as that at issue in the main proceedings are covered by the national and international law applicable in the Member State in which recognition and enforcement are sought.

Taking in regard the interpretation presented in this preliminary ruling, the Supreme Court of Lithuania will decide, on the basis of the applicable national procedural law and international law, on the request made in an appeal brought by the applicant OAO “Gazprom” (to recognise and enforce a foreign arbitral award).

The Supreme Court of Lithuania is planning to re-open the proceedings and hear the case in essence.

The judgement of the European Court see at: http://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf?doclang=EN&text=&pageIndex=0&part=1&mode=DOC&docid=164260&occ=first&dir=&cid=642337

For more information see the website of the Supreme Court of Lithuania http://www.lat.lt. – please credit when citing or otherwise making use of data from this website.