CYPRUS Law and Practice Contributed by: George Middleton and Christoforos Iosif, Chryssafinis & Polyviou LLC
described in 3.1 Legal Issues Concerning Enforce- ment of Foreign Judgments . 3.3 Categories of Foreign Judgments Not Enforced In relation to EU judgments, the relevant EU Regula - tion 1215/2012 relates to judgments as “[a]ny judg - ment given by a court or tribunal of an EU member state, whatever the judgment may be called, includ - ing a decree, order, decision or writ of execution, as well as the determination of costs or expenses by an officer of the court”. The Regulation does not seem to extend to revenue, customs or administrative matters or to the liability of the state for acts and omissions in the exercise of state authority (acta iure imperii). In addition, the Regulation does not apply to: • the status or legal capacity of natural persons, rights in property arising out of a matrimonial rela - tionship or out of a relationship deemed by the law applicable to such relationship to have comparable effects to marriage; • bankruptcy proceedings relating to the winding-up of insolvent companies or other legal persons, judi - cial arrangements, compositions and analogous proceedings; • social security; • arbitration; • maintenance obligations arising from a family rela - tionship, parentage, marriage or affinity; and • wills and succession, including maintenance obli - gations arising by reason of death. With regard to foreign judgments issued by courts of countries with which Cyprus has entered into bilat - eral or multinational treaties, whether the foreign judg - ments are recognised in Cyprus will depend on the provisions of the treaties and will usually concern civil or commercial matters (but many also include judg - ments on matrimonial disputes). In terms of common law enforcement of foreign judg - ments, the following requirements must be met for a foreign judgment to be registered and enforced in Cyprus under common law rules.
• The judgment must be for a definite sum, limited to enforceable monetary judgments. • The judgment must be final and conclusive, and not subject to alteration by the issuing court, except where an appeal stays the judgment. • The foreign court must have jurisdiction under Cyprus conflict of law rules to issue the judgment. This, again, is subject to public policy considerations and adherence to due process, which are explored in other sections. 3.4 Process of Enforcing Foreign Judgments A foreign judgment will first need to be registered before it can be enforced. Recognition and enforcement of an EU judgment requires no special procedure or declaration of enforceability. A judgment creditor may register an EU judgment by sending a letter to the registrar of the competent district court to register the judgment. Once registered, the judgment may be enforced as if it were issued by a Cyprus court. The recognition of foreign (non-EU) judgments from jurisdictions with which the Republic of Cyprus has a bilateral treaty for mutual recognition of judgments is provided for by Law 121 (I)/2000, which states that a successful plaintiff seeking to register a for - eign judgment has to file an application by summons. The defendant/respondent can proceed with filing an objection, and the court will proceed with issuing its judgment regarding the registration of the judgment. There is specific legislation regarding commonwealth jurisdictions (Cap 10), which allows the successful plaintiff, within six years of receiving a judgment from a commonwealth jurisdiction, to seek to register this judgment in the Republic of Cyprus through a court application. The defendant has the option to file an application in court to set aside the registration of the judgment. Once a foreign judgment from any jurisdiction is rec - ognised or registered, the successful claimant can then initiate enforcement measures in the same man - ner as they would for a domestic judgment.
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