The Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards, commonly known as the New York Convention, was adopted by a United Nations diplomatic conference on 10 June 1958 and entered into force on 7 June 1959. The Convention requires courts of contracting states to give effect to private agreements to arbitrate and to recognize and enforce arbitration awards made in other contracting states. Widely considered the foundational instrument for international arbitration, it applies to arbitrations that are not considered as domestic awards in the state where recognition and enforcement is sought.
The New York Convention is very successful. Nowadays many countries have adopted arbitration laws based on the UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration. This works with the New York Convention so that the provisions on making an enforceable award, or asking a court to set it aside or not enforce it, are the same under the Model Law and the New York Convention. The Model Law does not replace the convention; it works with it. An award made in a country which is not a signatory to the Convention cannot take advantage of the convention to enforce that award in the 169 contracting states unless there is bilateral recognition, whether or not the arbitration was held under the provisions of the UNCITRAL Model Law.
Background In 1953, the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) produced the first draft Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of International Arbitral Awards to the United Nations Economic and Social Council. With slight modifications, the council submitted the convention to the International Conference in the Spring of 1958. The Conference was chaired by Willem Schurmann, the Dutch Permanent Representative to the United Nations and Oscar Schachter, a leading figure in international law who later taught at Columbia Law School and the Columbia School of International and Public Affairs, and served as the President of the American Society of International Law.
International arbitration is an increasingly popular means of alternative dispute resolution for cross-border commercial transactions. The primary advantage of arbitration over court litigation is enforceability: an arbitration award is enforceable in most countries in the world. Other advantages of arbitration include the ability to select a neutral forum to resolve disputes, that arbitration awards are final and not ordinarily subject to appeal, the ability to choose flexible procedures for the arbitration, and confidentiality.
Once a dispute between parties is settled, the winning party needs to collect the award or judgment. If the loser voluntarily pays, no court action is necessary. Otherwise, unless the assets of the losing party are located in the country where the court judgment was rendered, the winning party needs to obtain a court judgment in the jurisdiction where the other party resides or where its assets are located. Unless there is a treaty on recognition of court judgments between the country where the judgment is rendered and the country where the winning party seeks to collect, the winning party will be unable to use the court judgment to collect.
Cases and statistics Public information on overall and specific arbitration cases is quite limited as there is no need to involve the courts at all unless there is a dispute, and in most cases the loser pays voluntarily. A review of disputed cases in China found that from 2000 to 2011, the Supreme People's Court upheld the refusal to enforce the arbitration agreement in 17 cases due to a provision in Article V of the convention (China has an automatic appeal system to the highest court, so this includes all such refusals).
Summary of provisions Under the convention, an arbitration award issued in any other state can generally be freely enforced in any other contracting state, only subject to certain, limited defenses. These defenses are:
a party to the arbitration agreement was, under the law applicable to him, under some incapacity, or the arbitration agreement was not valid under its governing law; a party was not given proper notice of the appointment of the arbitrator or of the arbitration proceedings, or was otherwise unable to present its case; the award deals with an issue not contemplated by or not falling within the terms of the submission to arbitration, or contains matters beyond the scope of the arbitration (subject to the proviso that an award which contains decisions on such matters may be enforced to the extent that it contains decisions on matters submitted to arbitration which can be separated from those matters not so submitted); the composition of the arbitral tribunal was not in accordance with the agreement of the parties or, failing such agreement, with the law of the place where the hearing took place (the "lex loci arbitri"); the award has not yet become binding upon the parties, or has been set aside or suspended by a competent authority, either in the country where the arbitration took place, or pursuant to the law of the arbitration agreement; the subject matter of the award was not capable of resolution by arbitration; or enforcement would be contrary to "public policy".
Additionally, there are three types of reservations that countries may apply: New York Convention, 1958 – Reservations
Conventional Reservation – some countries only enforce arbitration awards issued in a Convention member state Commercial Reservation – some countries only enforce arbitration awards that are related to commercial transactions Reciprocity reservation – some countries may choose not to limit the convention to only awards from other contracting states, but may however limit application to awards from non-contracting states such that they will only apply it to the extent to which such a non-contracting state grants reciprocal treatment.
States may make any or all of the above reservations. Because there are two similar issues conflated under the term "reciprocity", it is important to determine which such reservation (or both) an enforcing state has made.
Parties to the Convention As of January 2023, the convention has 172 state parties, which includes 169 of the 193 United Nations member states plus the Cook Islands, the Holy See, and the State of Palestine. Twenty-four UN member states have not yet adopted the convention. In addition, Taiwan has not been permitted to adopt the convention (but generally enforces foreign arbitration judgments) and a number of British Overseas Territories have not had the Convention extended to them by Order in Council. British Overseas Territories to which the New York Convention has not yet been extended by Order in Council are: Anguilla, Falkland Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands, Montserrat, Saint Helena (including Ascension and Tristan da Cunha). State Date of Adoption State Date of Adoption 30 November 2005 27 June 2001 7 February 1989 19 June 2015 6 March 2017 2 February 1989 14 March 1989 29 December 1997 26 March 1975 2 May 1961 29 February 2000 20 December 2006 6 April 1988 6 May 1992 16 March 1993 15 November 1960 18 August 1975 15 March 2021 16 May 1974 25 September 2014 28 April 1995 1 September 1993 20 December 1971 7 June 2002 25 July 1996 10 October 1961 23 March 1987 23 June 2014 5 January 1960 19 February 1988 12 May 1986 22 March 2018 15 October 1962 4 September 1975 22 January 1987 25 September 1979 5 November 2014 28 April 2015 26 October 1987 1 February 1991 12 January 2009 26 July 1993 30 December 1974 29 December 1980 30 September 1993 22 December 1972 14 June 1983 28 October 1988 11 April 2002 3 January 1962 9 March 1959 10 June 1958 30 August 1993 24 August 2020 26 December 2010 19 January 1962 26 June 1959 15 December 2006 2 June 1994 30 June 1961 9 April 1968 16 July 1962 21 March 1984 23 January 1991 25 September 2014 5 December 1983 14 May 1975 3 October 2000 5 March 1962 24 January 2002 13 July 1960 7 October 1981 15 October 2001 11 November 2021 12 May 1981 5 January 1959 31 January 1969 10 July 2002 20 June 1961 15 November 1979 20 November 1995 10 February 1989 8 February 1973 28 April 1978 18 December 1996 17 June 1998 14 April 1992 11 August 1998 13 June 1989 16 September 2005 14 March 1995 5 October 2011 9 September 1983 10 March 1994 16 July 1962 5 November 1985 4 March 2021 17 September 2019 8 September 1994 22 June 2000 21 December 2006 30 January 1997 19 June 1996 14 April 1971 18 September 1998 2 June 1982 24 October 1994 23 October 2006 12 February 1959 11 June 1998 16 April 2013 4 March 1998 24 April 1964 6 January 1983 24 September 2003 14 October 1964 17 March 1970 14 March 1961 25 February 1999 14 July 2005 31 March 2020 2 January 2015 10 October 1984 17 July 2019 8 October 1997 7 July 1988 6 July 1967 3 October 1961 18 October 1994 30 December 2002 13 September 1961 24 August 1960 31 October 2008 12 September 2000 17 May 1979 20 November 2012 19 April 1994 17 October 1994 12 March 2001 3 February 2020 28 October 2020 21 August 1986 28 May 1993 6 July 1992 3 May 1976 12 May 1977 9 April 1962 26 March 2018 28 January 1972 10 November 2022 1 June 1965 9 March 1959 13 October 1964 14 August 2012 21 December 1959 17 January 2023 12 June 2020 14 February 1966 17 July 1967 2 July 1992 4 May 2022 12 February 1992 10 October 1960 21 August 2006 24 September 1975 30 September 1970 30 March 1983 7 February 1996 8 February 1995 12 September 1995 14 March 2002 26 September 1994
The convention has also been extended to a number of British Crown Dependencies, Overseas Territories, Overseas departments, Unincorporated Territories and other subsidiary territories of sovereign states.
Territory Date of Ratification Territory Date of Ratification 24 April 1964 14 November 1979 24 April 1964 25 May 2014 26 March 1975 26 November 1980 26 March 1975 24 April 1964 10 February 1976 26 June 1959 24 September 1975 10 February 1976 30 September 1970 19 April 1985 22 February 1979 19 April 1985 Navassa Island 26 June 1959 24 April 1964 24 April 1964 24 April 1964
States which are not party to the Convention As of 2025, states that are not party are:How Countries CanFully Implementthe New York Convention Chad Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Eswatini Gambia Grenada Guinea-Bissau Kiribati Libya Federated States of Micronesia Namibia Nauru Niue North Korea Republic of the Congo Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Samoa Solomon Islands Somalia South Sudan Togo Tuvalu Vanuatu Yemen
United States issues Under American law, the recognition of foreign arbitral awards is governed by chapter 2 of the Federal Arbitration Act, which incorporates the New York Convention.
Therefore, the New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (the "Convention") preempts state law. In Foster v. Neilson, the Supreme Court held "Our constitution declares a treaty to be the law of the land. It is, consequently, to be regarded in courts of justice as equivalent to an act of the Legislature, whenever it operates of itself without the aid of any legislative provision."Foster v. Neilson, 27 U.S. 253, 314 (1829). See also Valentine v. U.S. ex rel. Neidecker, 57 S.Ct. 100, 103 (1936); Medellin v. Dretke, 125 S.Ct. 2088, 2103 (2005); Sanchez-Llamas v. Oregon, 126 S.Ct. 2669, 2695 (2006). Thus, over a course of 181 years, the United States Supreme Court has repeatedly held that a self-executing treaty is an act of the Legislature (i.e., act of Congress).