Short answer: yes, but with conditions that catch foreign companies out. Iraq joined the New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards through Law No. 14 of 2021, published in Al-Waqa’i al-Iraqiyya issue 4633 on 31 May 2021. The Convention has applied to Iraq since 9 February 2022. Iraq took three reservations: it applies the Convention only to awards made in another contracting state on the basis of reciprocity, only to disputes that Iraqi law treats as commercial, and not to awards issued before the Convention took effect. An award that falls outside any one of these is still handled under the older domestic rules, which give Iraqi courts far wider powers of review.
What changed when Iraq joined the Convention
Before 2021 a foreign award had no special status in Iraq. Under Article 272 of the Civil Procedure Law No. 83 of 1969, no arbitral award can be enforced, whoever issued it, until a competent Iraqi court ratifies it. Under Article 274 the court may ratify the award, annul it in whole or in part, send it back to the arbitrators, or decide the dispute itself. That gave a losing Iraqi party many chances to reopen the case.
The Convention narrows this. Under Article V, recognition can be refused only on a closed list of grounds, such as an invalid arbitration agreement, a party being unable to present its case, the tribunal going beyond the submission, or the award being contrary to public policy. Iraq deposited its accession with the United Nations on 11 November 2021, and under Article XII(2) the Convention entered into force for Iraq ninety days later, on 9 February 2022.
The three reservations
- Reciprocity. Iraq applies the Convention only to awards made in the territory of another contracting state. The test is where the award was made, meaning the seat of the arbitration, not the nationality of the parties. A seat in a state that is not party to the Convention leaves you under the domestic rules.
- Commercial disputes only. The Convention applies only to differences arising from legal relationships that Iraqi law considers commercial. Supply, construction, oilfield services and most cross-border contracts will qualify, but the point should be checked against the Iraqi Commercial Law when the counterparty is a state body or the contract mixes commercial and administrative elements.
- No retroactive effect. The accession law excludes awards issued before it took effect. The date matters more than it looks, as the next section shows.
Which date counts: 31 May 2021 or 9 February 2022?
The accession law came into force on publication, 31 May 2021, but the Convention itself only bound Iraq from 9 February 2022. Awards issued between those two dates sit in a grey zone. In decision 257/Civil Panel/2024 of 11 January 2024, as reported by commentators, the Federal Court of Cassation upheld a ruling of the Karkh Court of First Instance refusing to ratify a foreign award that predated the Convention’s entry into force, applying the Convention’s own date. If your award was issued before 9 February 2022, plan on the domestic route.
How enforcement works in practice
- Prepare the documents. Article IV of the Convention requires the duly authenticated original award or a certified copy, and the original arbitration agreement or a certified copy. Both need an Arabic translation certified in line with Iraqi requirements, and documents issued abroad need the usual legalisation chain through the Iraqi embassy and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
- File with the competent court. The application is brought as a case before the Iraqi Court of First Instance, with appeal and cassation review above it. Commercial disputes with a foreign party are heard in Baghdad by the specialised Court of First Instance for commercial cases, so which court is competent should be confirmed for each file before filing.
- Expect argument about the legal basis. Iraqi courts have not yet settled how the Convention sits alongside the ratification procedure in the Civil Procedure Law. Frame the application expressly under Law No. 14 of 2021 and the Convention, and be ready to show why the Article V grounds, and not the broader Civil Procedure Law review, apply.
- Then execute. Once recognised, the award is enforced through the Execution Directorate against assets in Iraq. Against state entities, recovery depends on budget allocations and can take time even after the court process ends.
Awards against the Iraqi state
Many foreign contractors’ disputes are with ministries and state companies. For investment treaty claims, Iraq is also a party to the ICSID Convention, ratified by Law No. 64 of 2012, under which awards are to be treated as final judgments. For commercial awards against a state company, the Convention route applies in the same way as against a private party, but public policy arguments are raised more often, and payment usually needs a separate settlement or budget process.
Mistakes we see most often
- Choosing a seat in a state that is not party to the Convention.
- Assuming any award issued after May 2021 is covered, when the safe date is 9 February 2022.
- Filing a bare ratification request under the Civil Procedure Law and inviting a full review of the merits.
- Arriving with an award and contract that were never legalised or translated for use in Iraq.
- Leaving the arbitration clause vague on the seat, the rules and the language, which gives the other side room to challenge the agreement itself.
This article covers the federal Iraqi courts. The Kurdistan Region has its own court system, and enforcement there should be checked separately.
How Iraq Gate helps
Iraq Gate Legal Consulting is a Baghdad law firm whose lawyers are admitted to the Iraqi Bar Association, with experience in ICC and ICSID matters. We review arbitration clauses before you sign, check whether an existing award falls within the Convention, prepare the translated and legalised document pack, and bring and defend recognition and enforcement cases before the Iraqi courts. For more answers, see our Iraq legal FAQ. This guide is also available in Arabic.
Sources: Law No. 14 of 2021 on the Accession of the Republic of Iraq to the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (New York, 1958), Al-Waqa’i al-Iraqiyya issue 4633 (31 May 2021), published by the Ministry of Justice; UNCITRAL status table for the New York Convention; Civil Procedure Law No. 83 of 1969, Articles 272 and 274; Federal Court of Cassation decision 257/Civil Panel/2024 (11 January 2024). This article is general information, not legal advice.
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