The New York Convention principle of non-discrimination and the exequatur procedure for foreign arbitral awards in Spain

Abstract

Article III of the 1958 New York Convention mandates the recognition of the authority of foreign arbitral awards under the conditions provided for in the Convention, while referring procedural questions to the domestic law of the Contracting States. The same rule contains a prohibition of discrimination since it forbids the enforcement of foreign awards to be more burdensome than that of domestic awards. Spanish rules on jurisdiction and other aspects of the recognition procedure may question compliance with this mandate. In particular, because of the impossibility of joinder of actions and the diversity of access to the available remedies for the decision granting or denying recognition/exequatur.