(1) This section has effect as respects awards rendered pursuant to the Convention on the settlement of investment disputes between States and nationals of other States which was opened for signature in Washington on 18 March 1965.
That Convention is in this Act called “the Convention”, and its text is set out in the Schedule to this Act.
(2) A person seeking recognition or enforcement of such an award shall be entitled to have the award registered in the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court subject to proof of the prescribed matters and to the other provisions of this Act.
(3) Where any pecuniary obligation imposed by the award is expressed in a currency other than the currency of Saint Lucia, the award shall be registered as if that obligation were expressed in the currency of Saint Lucia converted on the basis of the rate of exchange prevailing at the date when the award was rendered pursuant to the Convention.
(4) In addition to the pecuniary obligations imposed by the award, the award shall be registered for the reasonable costs of and incidental to registration.
(5) If at the date of the application for registration the pecuniary obligations imposed by the award have been partly satisfied, the award shall be registered only in respect of the balance, and accordingly if those obligations have then been wholly satisfied, the award shall not be registered.
(6) The power to make rules of court under the Supreme Court Order shall include power—
(a) to prescribe the procedure for applying for registration under this section, and to require an applicant to give prior notice of his intention to other parties;
(b) to prescribe the matters to be proved on the application and the manner of proof, and in particular to require the applicant to furnish a copy of the award certified pursuant to the Convention;
(c) to provide for the service of notice of registration of the award by the applicant on other parties,
and in this and the next following section “prescribed” means prescribed by rules of court.
(7) For the purposes of this and the next following section—
(a) “award” shall include any decision interpreting, revising or annulling an award, being a decision pursuant to the Convention, and any decision as to costs which under the Convention is to form part of the award;
(b) an award shall be deemed to have been rendered pursuant to the Convention on the date on which certified copies of the award were pursuant to the Convention dispatched to the parties.
(8) This and the next following section shall bind the Crown (but not so as to make an award enforceable against the Crown in a manner in which a judgment would not be enforceable against the Crown).