ENGLAND & WALES Law and Practice Contributed by: James Herring, Nathalie Allen and David Wigg, Addleshaw Goddard
• the original court had no jurisdiction; • the defendant did not receive notice in sufficient time to enable them to defend the proceedings, and did not appear to defend them; • the judgment was obtained by fraud; • enforcement would be contrary to UK public policy; or • the rights under the judgment are not vested in the applicant for registration. Registration may be set aside if, prior to the date of the original judgment, the matter had been the subject of a final judgment by a court with jurisdiction over the matter. Under the common law Examples of grounds for defending a fresh claim based on a foreign judgment include the following. • The defendant was not “present” in the foreign jurisdiction when the original foreign proceedings started and did not agree to abide by the outcome. • The judgment: (a) is not for a sum of money, but some other rem- edy, or is for liability only; (b) represents an award of multiple damages (which are prohibited in the UK under Section 5 of the Protection of Trading Interests Act 1980); (c) relates to the enforcement of foreign taxes; (d) is in relation to foreign property rather than against a natural or legal person (ie, is a judg - ment in rem); (e) is not final and conclusive; (f) is contrary to UK public policy; (g) is obtained by fraud; or (h) is in breach of contract (for example, in breach of an agreed jurisdiction agreement). • The trial was unfair and/or Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights obliges the courts of England and Wales to not give effect to it. 4. Arbitral Awards 4.1 Legal Issues Concerning Enforcement of Arbitral Awards When considering the enforcement of arbitral awards in England and Wales, different considerations apply
depending on whether the arbitral award in question was made outside England, Wales and Northern Ire - land (termed a foreign award) or within these territories (termed a domestic award). Domestic Awards The Arbitration Act 1996 (the “1996 Act”), as amended by the Arbitration Act 2025 (the “2025 Act”) governs the recognition and enforcement of arbitral awards in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Section 66 (1) of the 1996 Act provides that an award made by a tribu - nal pursuant to an arbitration agreement may, by leave of the court, be enforced in the same manner as a judgment or order of the court to the same effect. Fur - thermore, where leave is so given, judgment may be entered in terms of the award (Section 66 (2)). Accord - ingly, following obtaining leave, it is open to a party to enforce a domestic award in England and Wales, and the same considerations set out in 2. Domestic Judgments apply. It is important to note that Section 66 of the 1996 Act is mandatory and cannot be contracted out of. Furthermore, this section of the 1996 Act applies to arbitrations seated both inside and outside England and Wales or Northern Ireland (Schedule 1 and Sec - tion 2 (2)(b) of the Act) – ie, this provision can also be used for enforcing foreign awards. Foreign Awards The UK’s withdrawal from the EU has had no impact on the enforcement of EU arbitral awards within the UK, by virtue of the fact that the UK and the EU are signatories to the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards 1958 (the “New York Convention”). This convention is unrelated to the UK’s former membership of the EU. Foreign awards tend to fall into three distinct catego - ries. New York Convention awards Under the New York Convention, any signatory state may, on the basis of reciprocity, declare that it will apply the New York Convention to the recognition and enforcement of awards made in the territory of another contracting state. The New York Convention entered into force in the UK on 23 December 1975. It applies
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