Articles
Storm in a Teacup: A New Ground for Annulling Hungarian Construction Arbitration Awards
Making an awkward legislative step, the Hungarian legislator introduced a new ground for annulling construction arbitration awards from 5 June 2023, which applies where arbitrators fail to deliberate the opinion of a domestic expert body. While many commentators have criticised this amendment because of its potential retroactive effect and its disharmony with the current international legal framework, this blog post argues that these fears are at least partially unfounded, and paradoxically the new provision may rather strengthen the status of arbitration as an alternative to litigation in construction disputes in Hungary.
Read More DownloadConfidentiality v. Transparency in International Arbitration – A Budapest Conference Recap
A pioneer in the region of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE region), the Permanent Arbitration Court attached to the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (HCAC) signed a partnership agreement with the Paris-based legal-tech start-up, Jus Mundi, allowing for the online accessibility of anonymized Hungarian arbitral decisions in English. Since the issue of publication of commercial arbitral awards puzzles the arbitration community worldwide, the two parties and the Hungarian Arbitration Association (HAA) decided to organize an international conference on 4 May 2023 in Budapest around the competing principles of confidentiality and transparency. This post summarizes the key takeaways of this event.
Read More DownloadMore Than a Facelift? – New Hungarian Arbitration Rules Take Off in 2023
The Permanent Arbitration Court attached to the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (The Hungarian Commercial Arbitration Court or ‘HCAC’) has recently adopted its revised rules of proceedings that went into effect on 31 December 2022. This development is particularly significant for the Hungarian arbitration landscape given that HCAC has exclusive competence over commercial, financial and energy arbitrations in Hungary. Does this revision count as a mere facelift of the former regime, or will the new provisions increase speed and effectiveness in HCAC arbitral proceedings? This post introduces the context surrounding the revision of the rules before focusing on five of the key novelties that they will introduce from 2023 onwards.
Read MoreHungary: Enforcing Arbitration Agreements by Applying Foreign Law
Conflict of laws issues can have a pivotal effect on the effectiveness of arbitration when state courts are asked to enforce arbitration agreements. Has the approach of Hungarian courts crystalized in the last years in this respect? Can the contemporary Hungarian judicial practice and the new domestic legislation be characterized as arbitration friendly? This post provides the answers to these questions.
Read More DownloadHungary: Setting Aside Arbitral Awards in the Last 25 Years – A Pro-Arbitration Approach with Minor Derailments
Two and a half decades have passed since Hungary harmonised its arbitration law with UNCITRAL Model Law (‘Model Law’) in 1994. This marked a giant leap forward, especially as the adopted provisions were made applicable not only in international, but in purely domestic arbitrations as well. This post analyses the Hungarian case law on setting aside procedures that has been produced since the country adhered to the Model Law. As will be shown by examining the standard of review and the selected grounds of annulment set forth by Article 34 of the Model Law (adopted verbatim in Hungary), apart from some judicial decisions that were rather exceptions than the rule, the Hungarian courts have usually adopted a pro-arbitration approach in the last 25 years.
Read More DownloadHungary: Steps Towards Differentiating Between Domestic and International Procedural Public Policy
Drawing a well-defined line of demarcation between domestic and international public policy when enforcing foreign arbitral awards sends a clear pro-arbitration message from national courts in any jurisdiction. Does Hungarian case law come close to this level of sophistication? This post analyses this question in the context of procedural public policy, and it does so based on two recent appellate court decisions rendered in the context of enforcement of arbitral awards in accordance with the New York Convention.
Read More DownloadThe New York Convention in the Hungarian Court Practice in Two Decades - Formalistic Yet Pro-Arbitration Approach?
This post analyses the decisions of Hungarian courts, rendered under the New York Convention (“Convention”) and published in the last two decades. The decisions were initially made available to the international arbitration community in the ICCA Yearbook of Commercial Arbitration series. This case law of 20 years is summarized below by identifying the main directions of the application of the Convention in Hungary.
Read More DownloadSetting Aside Arbitral Awards in the Last 25 Years in Hungary – A Pro-Arbitration Approach with Minor Derailments
Is Hungary a pro-arbitration jurisdiction? The UNCITRAL Model Law[1] (“Model Law”) has recently celebrated its 25th anniversary in Hungary, so the time is ripe to assess the case law of Hungarian courts from the last two and a half decades in the field of setting aside arbitral awards to answer the above question. Besides this “silver jubilee”, justifying the retrospection in itself, the reveiw of leading Supreme Court[2] decisions in this domain is also useful due to a recent legislative change, since from 1st April of 2020, the lawmaker introduced the so-called “limited precedent system” in Hungary, based on which all Supreme Court decisions have binding effect on lower courts.[3] This legislative reform, marking a milestone in the development of Hungarian law belonging to the Romano-Germanic legal family, can be interpreted as a shift from the traditional Roman law principle of “praetor ius dicere potest, ius facere non potest”, towards common law, where the existence of judge-made law is widely accepted. Therefore, in addition to the celebration of the first quarter century of the Model Law in Hungary, practical considerations also justify a short time travel to the past, to overview the landmark decisions of the Hungarian Supreme Court in relation with the annulment of arbitral awards.
Read More DownloadDoes a Right to Physical Hearing Exists in International Arbitration? - Hungarian Country Report
The coronavirus affects every branch of the law, and international arbitration is not an exception. To preserve rapidity, as one of the most important advantages of arbitration in comparison with state court litigation, remote hearings or e-hearings become more and more crucial in arbitral proceedings, yet their legality is not unequivocal in every jurisdiction. This is the reason why the International Council for Commercial Arbitration decided to launch a project in September 2020 with the following title: Does a Right to a Physical Hearing Exist in International Arbitration?
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