RECOGNITION AND ENFORCEMENT OF FOREIGN ARBITRAL AWARD IN INDONESIA UNDER ARBITRATION LAW (A CASE STUDY OF PT. FIRST MEDIA TBK V. ASTRO NUSANTARA INTERNATIONAL BV)

Abstract

Indonesia had ratified the New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards 1958 (“New York Convention”), which was promulgated by Supreme Court regulation no. 1 year 1990 regarding Procedure for the Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards. Furthermore, in 1999 the Indonesian government promulgated a new law No. 30 year 1999 regarding Arbitration and Alternative Dispute Resolution (“Arbitration Law”), in which article 65 until article 69 explained on the recognition and enforcement of foreign arbitral awards. Under the arbitration law, the process to enforce foreign awards must be rendered to the District Court of Central Jakarta, in accordance with the New York Convention 1958. Moreover, from the enactment of the act until at the moment, there are many enforcement of foreign award cases which has been rejected by the court based on the reason that the foreign awards had violated Indonesian public order. Under these grounds, the problems had risen, whether Arbitration law regarding foreign arbitral award is in accordance with New York Convention and the validity of Indonesian courts’ rejection on Singapore International Arbitration Center award in the recent case between Astro v. Lippo group. The award was rejected because of public order violation, whereas under arbitration law there was none of definition of public order. After analyzing through normative research, indeed that arbitration law is in accordance with New York Convention, except arbitration law does not contain basic principle from New York Convention and all Indonesian courts’ decisions were invalid due to lack of reasons for rejection of SIAC awards