Accession to the New York Convention with or without Reservations

The Democratic Republic of Congo (the “DRC”) promulgated on 26 June 2013, Law No. 13/023, authorizing accession to the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (New York, 1958) (the “New York Convention”). The Law provided that the accession of the DRC to the New York Convention is to be accompanied by four reservations: the reciprocity, the commercial, the retroactive and the immovable property reservation. However, the accession instrument of the DRC to the New York Convention deposited on 5 November 2014 at the United Nations did not mention any of the reservations found in that Law. The purpose of this paper is to briefly examine relevant international rules and practice regarding reservations to multilateral treaties, in particular, reservations made by States under the New York Convention. In conclusion, this paper discusses possible ways, both theoretically and practically, to remedy the situation similar to that in the DRC.