A/HRC/41/51 40. In May 2018, the Belgian Constitutional Court declared inadmissible the recourse filed by NML Capital to challenge this legislation. 39 In a landmark decision, the Court refused all arguments put forward by the vulture funds, in particular that the application of the law would lead to a violation of the creditor’s rights to property and to a fair trial, as provided by the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and its Protocol No. 1. 41. The Court found that the limitations to the creditor’s rights to property introduced by the 2015 law were both justified by the public interest and proportionate to the aim pursued. In precise terms, the legislation seeks to protect the most vulnerable countries by preventing the activities of vulture funds from contributing to making the situation worse. It provides national judges with objective criteria to identify creditors that pursue an “illegitimate advantage” in light of the “manifest disproportion” existing between the repurchase price and the face value of the amounts the creditor claims. 42. The law does not exclude entirely the creditor’s right to claim before the Belgian courts, but limits the repayment to the actual price of the sovereign debt, since the right to claim up to that amount remains untouched. According to the Constitutional Court, the difference between the treatment of creditors that pursue an illegitimate aim and others is reasonably justified to achieve the aims of the law. United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland 43. Following discussions on a draft bill to limit the maximum recoverable amount of the defaulted sovereign debts of developing countries, in 2010 Parliament passed a law limiting the amount recoverable of claims related to “qualifying debts”.40 The regulation applies to any national and foreign judgments enforceable in the United Kingdom, as well as to arbitral awards. However, its scope is limited to heavily indebted poor countries. 44. Section 3 (2) of the law refers to the debts of countries that have reached decision point under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative, defining the relevant proportion by referring to the reduction as applied under the Initiative when a country reaches the decision point. The percentage reduction calculated by IMF and the World Bank is required from all creditors holding debts included in the Initiative, in order to reduce the country’s indebtedness to a sustainable level.41 45. The aim of the law is to ensure that courts in the United Kingdom neither render nor enforce a judgment that allows recovery of covered debts of those countries in excess of the amount calculated as sustainable debt under the Initiative. The creditor may not recover more than the existing debt, even in cases of renegotiation or new agreements. While there is no provision for cancellation of a debt, enforcement is limited to the recoverable amount under the existing debt, irrespective of the law applicable to the debt or claim. 42 France 46. In 2016, an amendment to the law on the fight against corruption introduced rules aimed at protecting foreign States that are beneficiaries of French official development assistance facing sovereign default from speculation by abusive creditors. 43 The new regulation prohibits the seizing of goods or properties of a foreign State if (a) the debtor State was the recipient of ODA at the time the debt was issued; (b) it was in default or close to it at the time the creditor acquired the debt; (c) the situation of default (or close to it) with respect to the specific claim dates back less than four years (or six years in cases of 39 40 41 42 43 10 Decision No. 61/2018, Action for annulment of the law of 12 July 2015 relating to the fight against the activities of vulture funds, introduced by NML Capital Ltd. incorporated in the Cayman Islands. Debt Relief (Developing Countries) Act 2010. See explanatory notes to the law, para. 22, and Francis D. Chukwu, “Refocusing on the objectives: a critique of the U.K.’s Debt Relief (Developing Countries) Act, 2010” (1 May 2011). See Michael Waibel, “Debt relief to poor countries: rules v. discretion“, Journal of International Banking and Financial Law (May 2010). Law No. 2016 1691 of 9 December 2016 relating to transparency, the fight against corruption and the modernizations of economic life, JORF No. 0287 of 10 December 2016, art. 60.