The Refusal for Recognition and Enforcement in the Russian Federation of a Foreign Judgment Obtained by Fraud
Abstract
In July 2019 a landmark event took place in Private International Law, associated with the approval of the final text of Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgements in Civil or Commercial Matters. For more than 10 years The Hague Conference on Private International Law has not introduced new conventions. Russia actively participated in the final procedures and sent a governmental delegation to the 22nd diplomatic session of Conference mentioned to sign the final act of the session. The prospects for signing and ratifying the Convention by key participants of international trade and by countries where civil relations are localized are still the questions of the future. The article presents an analysis of the provisions of the Convention and the possibility of implementing international law into national legislation. In the Russian law there is no efficient system of fraud detection from the parties of civil or arbitral proceedings and countermeasures to it for the court. The term “fraud” used in the Convention has no comparable in the Russian legislation and case law if fraudulent acts of the party resulted in misjudgment came into force. Reviews of such judgment or retrial are practically impossible. This weakness of the Russian law is truly sensitive in cases of recognition of foreign judgments obtained by fraud. Legal regulation vacuum can be caused by Russian accession to the Convention which recognizes a possibility of defected judgments, but Russian court has no means of detecting these defected judgments, which throws doubts on the whole procedure and result of recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments in Russia. In the present article the authors raise key challenging issues of finality of judgments and possibilities of their revision in future, point at non-readiness of the Russian law for accession to the Convention, at significance of this institution of judgments obtained by fraud and at inadmissibility of exception of this institution in case of ratifying Convention.
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