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…

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…

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…

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 few years in this respect? Can the contemporary Hungarian judicial practice and the new domestic legislation be characterized as arbitration friendly? This…

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…

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…

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…