The Hague Convention on Choice of Court Agreements 2005 (EU Exit) Regulations 2018: What You Need to Know
The Hague Convention on Choice of Court Agreements (HCCA) is an international treaty that aims to promote international trade and commerce by providing a framework for the enforcement of choice of court agreements. The HCCA ensures that parties to cross-border contracts have certainty as to which court will hear disputes and that judgments rendered by that court will be recognized and enforced in other signatory countries.
The UK ratified the HCCA in 2018, and it came into force on 1 October 2018. However, given Brexit, the Hague Convention on Choice of Court Agreements 2005 (EU Exit) Regulations 2018 (the “Regulations”) were introduced to ensure that the HCCA continues to apply in the UK after Brexit.
The Regulations aim to preserve the effect of the HCCA for cross-border contracts that were concluded before Brexit and that include a choice of court agreement in favour of a UK court. This means that the UK court chosen by the parties will continue to have jurisdiction over disputes arising from those contracts, and judgments obtained in the UK court will continue to be recognized and enforced in the other signatory countries.
The Regulations also provide for the recognition and enforcement of judgments obtained in the other signatory countries in the UK courts, subject to certain conditions being met. For example, the judgment must be final and conclusive, and the choice of court agreement must be exclusive. This means that the parties must have agreed to bring any disputes exclusively to the chosen court, and the court must have been chosen before the dispute arises.
The Regulations do not apply to contracts concluded after Brexit. In such cases, the UK and the EU will need to rely on other international treaties or on the domestic laws of each jurisdiction to determine which court has jurisdiction over disputes arising from those contracts.
In conclusion, the Hague Convention on Choice of Court Agreements is an important international treaty that provides an effective mechanism for the enforcement of choice of court agreements in cross-border contracts. The Hague Convention on Choice of Court Agreements 2005 (EU Exit) Regulations 2018 ensure that the HCCA continues to apply in the UK after Brexit, providing certainty for parties to cross-border contracts concluded before Brexit. However, parties to contracts concluded after Brexit will need to consider other mechanisms for the enforcement of their choice of court agreements.