In this article, we will provide our statistics on recognition and enforcement (“R&E”) of foreign arbitral awards in the Republic of Kazakhstan (“ROK”), exploring the identified problems and offering recommendations.
I. R&E in Numbers
To understand the status quo of R&E of foreign arbitral awards in ROK, one must first look at the numbers. In the “Generalization of the Judicial Practice on Recognition, Enforcement, and Cancellation of Arbitral Awards for 2019-2022” (the “SC Practice Generalization”), the ROK Supreme Court attempted to summarise the relevant practices with respect to domestic arbitral awards, but omitted statistical data on R&E of foreign arbitral awards.
Consequently, we have attempted to conduct an independent analysis of foreign arbitral awards’ R&E cases decided in the 2011-2025 timeframe. To identify relevant cases, we collected court judgments from the “Paragraph”[1] and “BestProfi”[2] databases that mentioned the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards, 1958 (New York) (“NY Convention”) or ROK law provisions on R&E of foreign arbitral awards.
Of the 24 cases located, in only 12 did the courts enforce foreign arbitral awards,[3] producing a meagre 50% enforcement rate.
Of the 12 cases where the awards were not enforced, 3 applications were refused enforcement on the basis of international treaties, 3 were returned to the applicant due to the lack of court’s jurisdiction or lack of party representative’s authority,[4] and 6 were remanded for retrial[5].