L’Exécution d’une sentence arbitrale nationale ou internationale en Côte d’Ivoire, cadre légal – enjeux et obstacles

The execution of the arbitral award ends the dispute between the parties. Consequently, the party who has succumbed may voluntarily execute that decision and then pay the beneficiary of the decision, when it is ordered to pay a sum of money, even without being necessary to be enforceable. But it can happen, and it is often the case that the party who has been condemned refuses to execute the decision spontaneously, even though it has become final and enforceable. A process often encumbered with difficulties in order to execute the arbitral award is then engaged. Several national or international texts lay down the principle of the recognition and enforcement of the arbitral award. From the New York Convention of 1958 on the recognition or enforcement of foreign arbitral awards to the Ivorian ordinance of 2012, determining the intervention of national courts in the arbitration proceedings passing by the uniform act on the law of arbitration, of the Organization for the Harmonization of Business Law in Africa (OHADA), all these texts militate in favor of the enforcement of arbitral awards. How does all this legislation find its application in the Ivorian judicial system? What are the difficulties of enforcing awards in Côte d'Ivoire and what are the challenges? These are the axes of reflection that the issue of enforcement of arbitral awards in Côte d'Ivoire leads us to explore.