Chronique de jurisprudence : Arrêt Gazprom

The Gazprom judgment, delivered by the grand chamber of the Court of Justice of the European Union (hereafter ?the Court?) on the 13th of May 2015 offers, for the first time since the controversial judgment in the case West Tankers, substantial developments concerning the relationship between the field of arbitration and the Brussels 1 regulation on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters. The Court hereby rules that said regulation does not oppose a court of a member State to recognize and enforce an arbitral award enjoining a litigant to resort to arbitration. The judgment, of importance for the functioning of arbitral tribunals, gives the Court the opportunity to clarify the scope of its West Tankers case, that set certain boundaries with regards to the measures national courts could adopt in support of arbitration. The Gazprom ruling provides important developments with regards both the principle of mutual trust and confidence and the principle of competence-competence. Acknowledging that the first principle does not apply to arbitral tribunals, it considers that an anti-suit award which does not provide for pecuniary sanction does not hinder the second. Furthermore, it reject any primacy of the Brussels 1 Regulation over the New York Convention, with regards to the recognition and enforcement of arbitral awards. As such, the Court reestablishes a certain separation between the Regulation and the field of arbitration, limiting the involvement of the first over the second.