HONG KONG SAR, CHINA Law and Practice Contributed by: Eric H. H. Chow, Michael Cheng, Stephanie Wong and June Wong, C L Chow and Macksion Chan
Austria, Belgium, Bermuda, Brunei, France, Germa - ny, India, Israel, Italy, Malaysia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore and Sri Lanka. To be registrable, a judgment must: • be final and conclusive between the parties (not interlocutory); • be for a sum of money payable, but not a sum pay - able in respect of taxes, similar charges, fines or penalties; • be enforceable by execution in the original country; • be given after the Foreign Judgments (Reciprocal Enforcement) Order (Cap 319A) coming into force; • not have been wholly satisfied (only an unsatisfied balance can be registered); and • be registered within six years of the judgment (or of the last judgment in any appeal). A designated superior court’s judgment can be regis - tered even where it was itself given to enforce a judg - ment from a third country, provided the usual registra - tion conditions are met. MJREO and MJCCMREO (Mainland China) The MJREO is the older, narrower regime to register Mainland judgments in Hong Kong. It applies only to money judgments (not taxes, similar charges, fines or penalties) on commercial contracts. The judgment must come from a designated Mainland court (Sched - ule 1 of the MJREO), and rest on a written agreement (made on or after 1 August 2008 but before 29 January 2024) giving the Mainland court’s exclusive jurisdic - tion; it must be final and conclusive and enforceable on the Mainland. Registration must be sought within two years, running from the last day of any perfor - mance period specified in the Mainland judgment or, if there is none, from the date the judgment takes effect. The MJCCMREO applies to judgments given on or after 29 January 2024 and is much wider. It covers a broad range of civil and commercial matters and lower courts, as well as senior ones, and it reaches both monetary and non-monetary judgments (such as declarations and specific performance). It removes the requirement for an exclusive Mainland jurisdiction clause and replaces the “final and conclusive” test with an “effective” judgment.
To register a judgment under the MJCCMREO, Main - land judgments must fulfil the following requirements: • the judgment is civil or commercial in nature under the Mainland law or is criminal in nature and contains an order for a sum of money payable in respect of compensation or damages; • the judgment is not an excluded judgment; • the judgment requires the payment of a sum of money, or the performance of an act by a party to the proceedings; • the judgment was made on or after the commence - ment of the MJCCMREO; • is an effective judgment in the Mainland:- (a) enforceable in the Mainland; (b) given by the Supreme People’s Court; (c) a second instance judgment given by a High People’s Court or an Intermediate People’s Court; or (d) a first instance judgment given by a High Peo - ple’s Court, an Intermediate People’s Court or a Primary People’s Court from which no appeal is allowed from the judgment or in respect of which the time limit for appeal has expired; • a default in complying with the requirement occurred within two years before the date of the application; and • the default is still continuing on the date of the application. Because the MJCCMREO has no retrospective effect, the two Mainland regimes run side by side: the MJC - CMREO applies to judgments given on or after 29 January 2024, while the MJREO continues to gov - ern judgments founded on an exclusive choice-of- Mainland-court agreement made before that date. A judgment stemming from such a pre-29 January 2024 agreement is an excluded judgment under the MJC - CMREO (Section 5 (1)(j)(i)), leaving the MJREO as the route. Common Law Where no ordinance applies, a foreign judgment can be recognised at common law if it is: • for a debt or definite sum of money; • final and conclusive; not obtained by fraud;
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