| Hague choice of court convention | |
| Long Name: | Convention of 30 June 2005 on Choice of Court Agreements |
| Date Signed: | 30 June 2005 |
| Location Signed: | The Hague, The Netherlands[1] |
| Date Effective: | 1 October 2015 |
| Condition Effective: | 2 ratifications/accessions |
| Parties: | 9 (covering 35 countries): |
| Signatories: | 9 |
| Depositor: | Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands |
| Languages: | English and French |
The Hague choice of court convention, formally the Convention of 30 June 2005 on Choice of Court Agreements, is an international treaty concluded within the Hague Conference on Private International Law. It was concluded in 2005, and entered into force on 1 October 2015. Albania, the European Union (covering the European territory of all member states except Denmark), Denmark, Mexico, Moldova, Montenegro, Singapore, Ukraine and the United Kingdom are parties to the convention.[2] China, Israel, North Macedonia and the United States signed the convention, but did not ratify.
Parties under the convention recognize a choice of court agreement between parties in the field of civil law and thus courts not chosen in the agreement will stay all proceedings, unless the chosen court refuses to uphold the jurisdiction. For the convention choice of court agreements must be "exclusive", which means in the context of the convention that also a group of courts may be chosen, as long as they are in the same country. It is not required for a choice of court agreement to explicitly state that the agreement is exclusive; designating a specific (set of) courts will automatically render it exclusive.
Judgments by the chosen court must be recognized in all states where the convention is applicable.
The Hague Conference started with the "Judgements project" in 1996: the development of a convention regarding jurisdiction and recognition of judgements. Jurisdiction within such a convention would be classified in three categories: bases of jurisdiction which were obligatory, optional or prohibited. As the negotiators were not able to come to a consensus on such a convention, the scope of the work was reduced to jurisdiction and recognition of decisions based on a choice of court agreement between the parties. During the negotiations parallels were drawn between the New York Convention on arbitral awards: the aim was to create a system of recognition of decisions based on court cases where the court was chosen pursuant to a choice of court agreements, which would create the same level of predictability and enforceability as is the case in arbitral awards in New York Convention states.[3]
| State | Signature | Ratification/ Accession | Entry into force | Comments | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| does not apply to certain insurance contracts and to the Faroe Islands and Greenland | |||||
| EU territory of all member states except Denmark, included the UK until 2021; does not apply to certain insurance contracts | |||||
| does not apply to certain insurance contracts | |||||
Albania
Denmark
Mexico
Montenegro
Singapore
Ukraine
United Kingdom