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Russian Federation v Noga Import/Export Company

International Law Reports Cited authorities 1 Cited in Precedent Map Related
JurisdictionFrance
Judgment Date10 août 2000
CourtCourt of Appeal (Paris)
Date10 août 2000
France, Court of Appeal of Paris (First Chamber).

(Aldige, President; Le Dauphin and Signoret, Judges)

Russian Federation
and
Noga Import/Export Company

State immunity Attachment and execution Arbitration Award in favour of private company against foreign State Enforceability of award Signature of arbitration clause Undertaking not to rely on any immunity from attachment Express waiver of immunity in relation to application of any arbitral award Whether constituting waiver of diplomatic immunity from execution

State immunity Immunity from attachment Embassy bank accounts Whether funds in such an account automatically covered by immunity Whether finding that accounts in question indisputably allocated for functioning of mission sufficient The law of France

SummaryThe facts:Noga, a Swiss company, concluded two loan agreements with the Soviet Union in 1991 and 1992. Pursuant to arbitration clauses in the agreements, Noga subsequently obtained awards against the Russian Federation as successor to the Soviet Union. In March 2000, Noga obtained an order for the enforcement of the awards from the court of first instance of Paris and an attachment order over bank accounts held in the name of several missions of the Russian Federation in Paris. The attachments were confirmed by the court of first instance. The Russian Federation then appealed to the Court of Appeal of Paris.

Held:The appeal was allowed. The bank accounts at issue were covered by immunity from attachment.

(1) The simple statement in the contracts in dispute that the borrower waives all rights of immunity with regard to the application of the arbitral award rendered against it in relation to this contract did not manifest an unequivocal intention on the part of the borrower State to waive, in favour of its private contractual partner, its right to rely on diplomatic immunity from execution and to accept that the private company in question could, if necessary, interfere with the functioning and action of its embassies and missions abroad.

(2) Whilst bank accounts were not specifically mentioned in the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, 1964, that Convention sought to guarantee the efficient performance of the functions of diplomatic missions. The realization of this objective implied that those means allocated for the fulfilment of those functions should be properly protected. The protection of funds held in bank accounts, opened in the name of the embassy in order to fulfil the requirements of its public activities on the territory of the receiving State, was based on the law of diplomatic relations and the specific regime governing diplomatic immunities.

The following is the text of the relevant part of the judgment of the Court:

THE FACTS

On 12 April 1991 the Noga Import and Export Company (hereafter Noga), a Swiss company with its seat in Geneva, concluded a loan contract with the Government of the Federation of Soviet Socialist Republics of Russia, whose successor is the Russian Federation, in order to finance the supply of various goods and services.

On 29 January 1992 Noga, the lender, concluded a new loan contract with the Government of the Russian Federation. It was agreed that the borrower would proceed to sell petrol products in order to guarantee repayment of these credits.

The contracts, which were...

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