recognition of foreign judgments

Recognition of a judgment made in a foreign jurisdiction to England requires the English Court to determine whether a the foreign judgment should properly be given legal force and effect in England. This requires an application of principles of established and well tried English practice and procedure, and English private international law.

Recognition of Foreign Judgments

There are two reasons why a party to litigation in England may wish to apply to have such a judgment recognised by an English Court.

1. Firstly, the litigant may wish to enforce a money judgment in England. The judgment creditor seeks execute the foreign judgment against the assets of the defendant located in England.
2. Alternately, a litigant (whether a plaintiff or defendant in the overseas court) may wish to have the judgment recognised in England for the purposes of avoiding re-litigation of the same dispute. 
   The previous litigation must have been heard and decided in the foreign country and produced a decision is considered final and conclusive for the purposes of English private international law.
   In these circumstances, the dispute in the foreign litigation would be considered res judicata both under the foreign law and English law.

The recognised English judgment would be used as a defence to the claim which is the subject of the dispute in the English Courts. In either case the judgment must be recognised by an English Court first as a foreign judgment.

Basis for Application for Recognition

Various pieces of legislation in force in England entitle a person wishing to have a foreign judgment recognised in England with relative ease. These statutory procedures bypass the traditional requirements of common law to sue on the foreign judgment (see below).  Different procedures apply depending upon whether the judgment was obtained from a country (for the purposes of private international law) from:

1. a country within the United Kingdom (namely Scotland or Ireland);
2. a member State of the European Community;
3. a Commonwealth Country; and
4. other countries whereby no treaty is in place between England and the source country of the judgment.

In cases such as these recognition is referred to as certification or registration, as the case may be. If a statutory procedure is not available, the successful litigant must fall back to the common law rules for enforcement of judgments.

Grounds for Entitlement

In order for a judgment to be recognised in England:

1. The foreign court must have had jurisdiction over the defendant or the property which is the subject of the litigation. Usually, this means that the person or property was present within the jurisdictional bounds of the foreign court.
2. The foreign judgment must be final and conclusive on the merits of the case.

Accordingly, the foreign court must have had (1) jurisdiction to hear and determine the dispute, (2) jurisdiction over the person or the property which is the subject of the dispute.

Defences to Recognition

Defences available to a defendant in an English dispute to resist recognition of the foreign judgment are limited. Those defences to recognition include:

1. The foreign judgment was obtained in breach of a jurisdiction or arbitration agreement contained in a contract between the parties;
2. The judgment in the foreign jurisdiction was procured by fraud;
3. The defendant in the foreign litigation was denied natural justice: that is, was not given an opportunity to be heard by the foreign court;
4. The foreign judgment was obtained on subject matter which was res judicata;
5. Recognition of the foreign judgment would be contrary to principles of English public policy;
6. The judgment is in respect to a foreign revenue law such as a tax, fine or penalty of a foreign State.

Source of the Foreign Judgment

The legislation used to enforce a judgment depends upon where it was obtained in the first instance.

Brussels Convention

Administration of Justice Act

The Administration of Justice Act 1920 facilities for recognition and enforcement in England from judgments made by courts in:

Foreign Judgments (Reciprocal Enforcement) Act

Likewise, Foreign Judgments (Reciprocal Enforcement) Act 1933 provides for the enforcement of judgments from courts located in:

Other Countries - Suing on the Judgment

Where there is no other means to do so, businesses and companies are at liberty to issue proceedings in England in what is known as an 'action on the judgment'. Unless there is some defect in the decision to be imported into England (for reasons which include those described above), a judgment creditor is entitled to apply for summary judgment on the debt after (1) the claim form and particulars of claim (ie the originating process) have been served, and (2) a defence has been filed or the time for a defence has passed. At this stage the creditor would plan to apply for summary judgment on the claim to obtain the recognition of the judgment in the English Court.

For the purposes of English private international law, the countries are each of the States of the USA, Japan; Russia, including Ukraine, Belarus; countries in the Middle-East such as Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Qatar; Africa; and principalities such as Liechtenstein.

Effects of Registration

Foreign judgments which have been registered have the same force and effect as judgments of the High Court England and Wales. In addition, the enforcing creditor is entitled to its reasonable costs of enforcement of the decision which are recovered from the debtor.

There are a series of benefits to enforce judgments in England, which include the availability of European Enforcement Orders and the number of conventions which the UK is a party. European Enforcement Orders are enforceable across the European Union without the requirement of undertaking a further registration procedure such as those set out above.