On 22 September 2011 the Parliament of Ukraine adopted the Law amending the Civil Procedural Code of Ukraine (the "Code") to provide for interim measures in the course of recognition and enforcement proceedings with respect to foreign court judgements (the "Interim Measures Law"). The same legal framework applies to the recognition and enforcement of arbitral awards rendered by international arbitration tribunals outside of Ukraine.

The Interim Measures Law introduces an important innovation to the Code by stipulating that a winning party requesting a state court to grant enforcement to a court judgement or an arbitral award issued abroad may also apply for interim measures. Such interim measures may be granted by a state court at any time during consideration of the enforcement application provided that the absence of certain interim measures of protection may significantly complicate future enforcement or make it impossible.

Before the Interim Measures Law became effective, the Code was silent with regard to interim measures in aid of enforcement of foreign court judgements and arbitral awards. Interim measures could only be obtained by the parties to ordinary litigation proceedings.

The amended Code does not list interim measures that are now available in aid of enforcement of foreign judgements and awards. The same interim measures that have previously been available to litigating parties may now be granted in order to ensure successful enforcement of foreign court judgements and foreign arbitral awards. The procedure for granting interim measures remains unchanged.

The Interim Measures Law was signed into law by the President of Ukraine on 14 October 2011 and became effective on 19 October 2011.

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The original publication date for this article was 27/10/2011.