United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), at its Fifty-fifth session held in New York beginning on 27 June 2022, approved the Convention on the International Effects of Judicial Sales of Ships. UNCITRAL also adopted a recommendation to the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN) for the adoption of the Convention. It is expected that the convention will be adopted by the UN General Assembly in the Autumn of this year.
The final text of the Convention on the International Effects of the Judicial Sales of Ships is a result of the initiative of the Comité Maritime International (CMI). A draft convention on the recognition of foreign judicial sales of ships known as the Beijing Draft, was first prepared by the CMI and approved by the CMI Assembly in 2014. The Beijing Draft was used as a basis for discussion in the UNCITRAL Working Group VI when preparing the draft convention dealing with judicial sale of ships. The UNCITRAL Working Group was engaged in the preparations of the draft convention from July 2018 until February 2022 when a final version of the draft convention on the international effects on the judicial sales of ships was adopted and submitted to the Commission. The draft was then circulated to governments for comments and eventually finalised at the UNCITRAL’s Fifty-fifth session held in New York which commenced on 27 June 2022.