Hong Kong and Macau's arbitration agreement

Hong Kong and Macau agreed in January to an arrangement for the reciprocal enforcement of arbitral awards, bringing to a successful conclusion discussions which had been in progress for over a year.

This arrangement will provide an effective method of enforcing any Hong Kong arbitral awards in Macau, and vice versa.

Hong Kong and Macau both have procedures for the enforcement of foreign awards, namely, the Hong Kong Arbitration Ordinance, and Macau's Decree Law, but these procedures lack the efficiency of a special bilateral reciprocal arrangement.

Although details of the Hong Kong-Macau mutual agreement have yet to be made known and the agreement will not come into effect until the governments designate a date, it is likely that the arrangement will follow the existing Hong Kong-mainland and Macau-mainland arrangements.

The Hong Kong-mainland arrangement for the mutual enforcement of arbitral awards came into effect in February 2000, just a few years after the handover of Hong Kong to the mainland.

The implementation of this arrangement has been formalised under the Hong Kong Arbitration Ordinance. Specifically, this arrangement applies to arbitral awards made in Hong Kong under Hong Kong's Arbitration Ordinance and ad hoc arbitral awards, made under the rules of the International Chamber of Commerce or other foreign arbitration institutions and also made by designated arbitral commissions on the mainland.

The 1958 New York convention on the recognition and enforcement of foreign arbitral awards has been signed and ratified by most industrial states and provides the mechanism by which international arbitration awards are enforced around the world.