ENGLAND & WALES Law and Practice Contributed by: James Herring, Nathalie Allen and David Wigg, Addleshaw Goddard
Under the Hague Convention 2005, the Hague Judg - ments Convention 2019 and the statutory regimes, foreign judgments must first be registered (a judicial process) before they can be enforced. After registra - tion, however, a judgment is treated as though it were a judgment of the courts of England and Wales, so enforcement in England and Wales may then take place using domestic processes. Under the common law, a foreign judgment cannot be directly enforced. The party enforcing the judgment first needs to start new proceedings in England or Wales, suing on the foreign judgment as a debt (usu - ally applying for summary judgment on the new claim). A new judgment in the courts of England and Wales must be obtained before domestic enforcement steps can be considered. 3.3 Categories of Foreign Judgments Not Enforced The types of judgment that will be enforced are dif - ferent for each regime, but there are certain catego - ries that will generally not be enforced, or for which enforcement will be more difficult. • Interim (provisional or protective) judgments will usually only be enforced if they fall under the European Regime. Within that regime, they will only be enforced if the defendant was given notice of the hearing at which the judgment was given or if the judgment containing the order is served on the defendant before enforcement (Article 2 (a) of the Recast Brussels Regulation). • Under the European Regime, judgments given in default will not be enforced. The exception to this is if the defendant had the opportunity to bring proceedings to challenge the judgment when they heard about it but did not do so (Article 45 (1)(b) of the Recast Brussels Regulation). • Under the Hague Convention 2005, judgments following decisions on the merits, by the court of a contracting state that was the chosen court in an exclusive choice-of-court agreement, may be enforced. This may include default judgments (Article 4 (1)) and final injunctions. Interim orders, however, will not be enforced. Enforcement of judgments giving non-monetary remedies can be enforced, but awards for sums of money that
include exemplary or punitive damages may be refused enforcement. • Similarly, under the Hague Judgments Convention 2019, judgments following decisions on the merits by the court of a contracting state that had juris - diction on one of the bases set out in the Conven - tion (including under a non-exclusive jurisdiction agreement) may be enforced. This may include default judgments and final injunctions. Interim orders, however, will not be enforced. Enforcement of judgments giving non-monetary remedies can be enforced, but awards for sums of money that include exemplary or punitive damages may be refused enforcement. • Under the AJA 1920, the 1933 Act and the com - mon law, only money judgments may be enforced, and, as explained in 3.1 Legal Issues Concern- ing Enforcement of Foreign Judgments , under the common law a fresh judgment of the English court must first be obtained. The judgment being enforced must be final and conclusive. Interim judgments will not usually be final, unless they rep - resent the foreign court’s last word on the merits. It is also not possible as a matter of English law to enforce judgments from foreign courts in relation to taxes, fines or penalties. 3.4 Process of Enforcing Foreign Judgments The European Regime and the Lugano Convention For the small number of judgments that fall under the Recast Brussels Regulation, the process for creating a judgment that can be enforced is administrative, usu - ally with no judicial involvement. An exception to this is where there is an ongoing appeal by the judgment debtor. A party seeking enforcement must produce a certi - fied copy of the judgment to be enforced, together with a certificate issued by the court of origin stat - ing that the judgment is enforceable (Article 53 of the Recast Brussels Regulation). Translations into English are also required by the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR 74.4). There is no need to register the judgment, but the judgment must be served on the judgment debt - or before the first domestic enforcement measure is taken.
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