CYPRUS Law and Practice Contributed by: George Middleton and Christoforos Iosif, Chryssafinis & Polyviou LLC
3.5 Costs and Time Taken to Enforce Foreign Judgments The time and costs involved in enforcing foreign judg - ments vary according to the jurisdiction in which the judgment was originally issued and whether the pro - cedure will be contested by the judgment debtor (and in some limited cases, by intervening third parties). EU Judgments Since these are nearly automatically recognised, the process to “enlist” the judgment in the Republic is very speedy, with minimal costs involved, barring any fees agreed upon with a law firm. For the enforcement of a foreign judgment at common law, the court fees will depend on the sum awarded under the foreign judgment or the value of the sub - ject matter of the foreign judgment. These figures are assessed as per the table of fees set out in the Cyprus Civil Procedure Rules. For example, for an amount of EUR2 million or higher, the court stamps/fees are about EUR1,000. Foreign applicants for recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments may be requested to deposit secu - rity for costs if they are not residents of: • an EU member state; or • countries with which Cyprus has concluded a bilat - eral treaty for the provision of mutual assistance in civil and criminal matters, which excludes the provision of security for costs for their residents. For EU judgments covered by the Recast Brussels Regulation, the European Enforcement Order Regula - tion and the European Order of Payment Regulation, there is no need to obtain a declaration of enforce - ability. For recognition and enforcement under statutes of non-European judgments, the timeframe for obtaining a declaration of enforceability may range from approx - imately eight to 12 months from the date of filing. For the enforcement of foreign judgments at common law, the timeframe for adjudication may range from approximately two to five years from the date of filing.
Russian Federation Judgments The matter is regulated by the Treaty between the Republic of Cyprus and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on Legal Assistance in Civil and Criminal Matters (N172/86). The process depends upon the recognition of the judgment via the aforementioned Treaty. According to Article 23, even a foreign judg - ment for costs can be recognised and enforced auto - matically. Timeframes will vary depending on whether the judgment creditor files the application directly (if the conditions under the treaty are met) or whether the designated authority files the application. 3.6 Challenging Enforcement of Foreign Judgments The grounds on which a party can resist and challenge the recognition and enforcement of a foreign judgment are limited. These include (not exhaustively): • the judgment is not a judgment to which this part of the law applies, or it was registered in contra - vention of the law; • lack of jurisdiction in the courts of the country of origin; • the defendant in the original proceedings did not receive sufficient notice to enable them to defend the proceedings and did not appear; • the judgment was obtained by fraud; • the enforcement is contrary to public policy in the country of the registering court; or • the rights under the judgment are not vested in the person who made the application for enforcement. 4. Arbitral Awards 4.1 Legal Issues Concerning Enforcement of Arbitral Awards Cyprus arbitration laws include Law 101/1987 on International Commercial Arbitration which is based on the 1985 UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration and Cap 4 – Arbitration Law which governs domestic arbitration and mirrors the English Arbitration Act of 1950. In addition, the New York Convention (1958) was incorporated into Cyprus law via Ratification Law 84/1979. The grounds in arbi - tration laws for resisting the enforcement of an arbitral
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