Argentina case has ‘no connection with Ireland’
The Commercial Court has set aside the service of proceedings that sought recognition of a judgment issued by the US District Court for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) in 2023 against the state of Argentina.
With accrued interest, the total amount involved was over US$17.5 billion – the largest claim ever sought to be recognised and enforced by the Irish courts.
The US judgment had directed the country to pay a total of US$16.1 billion to investors arising from the state’s 2012 decision to take control of 51% of the former state-owned oil company YPF.
Ms Justice Eileen Roberts said that the court declined to accept jurisdiction to enforce the New York judgment in Ireland.
She found that the proceedings had “absolutely no connection” with Ireland.
‘No assets in Ireland’
Ms Justice Roberts also noted that Argentina had no assets in Ireland “other than diplomatic and consular assets not amenable to enforcement”.
“A lengthy and costly enforcement hearing in Ireland – a jurisdiction with which the substantive proceedings have no connection whatsoever – would, in my view, place a significant burden on the Irish courts,” the judge stated.
She added that permitting such an action in this case would “divert scarce judicial resources away from cases where the court’s intervention would have a real and meaningful practical impact on the outcome of the litigation before it”.