French court recognised an arbitral award issued under the rules of the ICAC at the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry regardless of its having been set aside by Russian courts

On 11 June 2012, the Paris court issued an order recognising the award issued by the International Commercial Arbitration Court at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation ("ICAC") for recovery from OJSC "NLMK" of RUB9.5 billion in favour of Nikolay Maximov.

The court considered the fact that the ICAC award had been previously set aside by the Moscow Arbitrazh Court (whose judgement was subsequently upheld by the Federal Arbitrazh Court of the Moscow District and the Supreme Arbitrazh Court) was insufficient to refuse recognition.

The order of the Paris court is remarkable because arbitral awards set aside in the country where they were made are recognised in other countries only in extraordinary circumstances. An example of such cases is the well-known case of recognition by the Dutch courts of the ICAC award issued pursuant to a claim brought by Yukos Capital S.a.r.l. against OJSC "NK" Rosneft" which had been set aside by the Moscow Arbitrazh Court. Under Paragraph 1 of Article V of the New York Convention (1958), a refusal of recognition and enforcement of an arbitral award based on the fact that it had been set aside by a competent authority of the country where the award was made is a right but not duty of the court where such recognition and enforcement is sought.

The decision of the Paris court is also noteworthy in the context of the recent trend in the Russian state courts aimed at extension of their competence by limiting the scope of arbitrable disputes. In Nikolay Maximov's case, the Russian courts referred to exclusive jurisdiction of the Russian arbitrazh courts to hear the so-called "corporate disputes" as one of the grounds to set aside the ICAC award. However, the order of the Paris court demonstrates that the possibility to recognise arbitral awards relating to "corporate disputes" outside Russia has not been lost.

The decision of the Paris court may be appealed. Nevertheless, the position of the court of first instance can inspire the supporters of the international commercial arbitration.