Armenian courts in Civil Case No. 0049/16/18 have examined the foreign court's decision on securing a claim (interim measures, interim orders). The foreign judicial act was submitted for recognition based on reciprocity of recognition, as no international treaty was concluded between the given country and Armenia.

Reciprocity, as a basis for recognition of a foreign court act, was introduced into the legislation of the Republic of Armenia by the RA Civil Procedure Code adopted in 2018. One of the novelties of the RA Civil Procedure Code adopted in 2018 was also the possibility of recognizing a foreign court's decision on securing a claim.

The Court of First Instance of the City of Yerevan, where the claim was examined, upheld the claim, recognizing the foreign court’s decision to secure the claim and allowing it to be executed in the Republic of Armenia. At the same time, the Civil Procedure Code doesn’t contain detailed regulations as on the procedure of the recognition. It includes just a notion that interim measures can also be recognized. The Civil Court of Appeal of the Republic of Armenia upheld the appeal against the said decision. It quashed the first-instance court's decision, arguing that the foreign judicial decision on securing a claim was not subject to recognition based on reciprocity.

The RA Court of Cassation, having examined the cassation appeal in the case, referred to the following legal question: Can the principle of reciprocal recognition and enforcement of foreign judicial acts under the RA Civil Procedure Code be applied to foreign courts’ decisions on securing a claim?

The legal issue at hand is that the legislature, while envisaging the possibility of recognizing the decisions on securing the claim, did not directly rule out that they could not be executed based on reciprocity.

The Court of Cassation of the Republic of Armenia has concluded that reciprocity also applies to the recognition of the interim decisions of the foreign courts.

In particular, the RA Court of Cassation has highlighted:

• Reciprocal recognition and enforcement of foreign judicial acts shall be deemed to exist until proven otherwise;
• In Armenia may be recognized judicial acts of all countries where there is a practice of recognizing and/or enforcing judicial acts adopted in Armenia, or at least of those countries where the law prescribes the principle of reciprocal recognition and enforcement of foreign judicial acts;
• Article 346 of the Civil Procedure Code of the Republic of Armenia prescribes the presumption of the existence of reciprocity and the obligation to prove the absence of reciprocity is on the party claiming the opposite.

Summing up, the RA Court of Cassation in Civil Case No. ED / 0049/16/18 states that

• In RA, foreign judicial acts, including acts on securing the claim, may be submitted for recognition on the basis of both international treaty and reciprocity.
• The reciprocity will be deemed to exist until the party who cites its absence proves otherwise.