A Reflection on Public Policy Exception in Private International Law under the New York Convention, European Union Instruments and Ethiopian Law

Abstract

With the advent of globalization, an expansive increase in cross border
transaction and socio-economic interaction has resulted in cross border law,
judgment, and conflict of jurisdiction. This resulted in the development of private
international law to ensure decisional harmony. Yet as a complete uniformity
may sometimes run against public policy of concerned states, public policy
exception is usually inserted. This piece reflects on the notion of public policy
exception in private international law under the Ethiopian private international
law rules in light of the European Union (EU) instruments and New York
convention, and demonstrates how the EU experience could be helpful to improve
the Ethiopian draft laws on the issue. Unlike EU, Ethiopia does not have
comprehensive and binding laws of private international law other than some
insufficient provisions under the civil procedure code (CPC) and the draft law.
Even more, the existing Ethiopian rules under the CPC and draft law are crafted
in manner that allow broader space to public policy exception including
morality, are anti-foreign law or judgment in principle, less coherent and
incomplete, and hence, are not as good as its EU counter parts to achieve the
desired goal of private international law. Even if Ethiopia ratified the New York
Convention, the scope of the Convention is limited to recognition and
enforcement of award only. Hence, to have a complete and coherent Ethiopian
legal regime on private international law, it is necessary to include pertinent
stipulations on public policy exception under the EU instruments in the Draft
proclamation.