UAE Law and Practice Contributed by: Mohammed Alsuwaidi, Ali Alraeesi, Rajiv Suri and Merline Dsouza, Alsuwaidi & Company
There is no specific type of domestic judgment that cannot be enforced in the UAE; all judgments that have the exequatur form affixed by the court can be enforced, except those that have been stayed by the execution judge or stayed and/or overruled by the Court of Cassation, and those that do not impose an obligation on the parties, such as some non-money judgments or some declaratory judgments confirming the proper termination of a contract. These kinds of judgments can be relied upon but cannot be enforced. 2.7 Register of Domestic Judgments Onshore Courts There is no central register of all judgments in the UAE onshore courts. Lawsuit files are accessible exclu - sively to the parties to the proceedings and can be accessed through the electronic court system using the parties’ credentials. Offshore Courts DIFC Courts The basic case details of all public cases filed with the DIFC Courts are recorded in the courts’ e-registry, which the public is able to access. However, the docu - ments involved in the cases and the documents of the parties are not disclosed. All judgments, decisions or orders of public cases can also be accessed through the DIFC Courts’ website, from decisions of a small claims tribunal to court administrative orders. ADGM Courts The public can access cases if they know details like the case number or the parties’ names. The ADGM Courts’ online list shows the start date of the case, but no other information. However, a copy of the judgment can be downloaded upon the closure of the case. 3. Foreign Judgments 3.1 Legal Issues Concerning Enforcement of The UAE is a signatory to several multilateral and bilat - eral treaties facilitating the reciprocal recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments. These include the Riyadh Arab Agreement for Judicial Co-operation, the GCC Convention on the Execution of Judgments, and Foreign Judgments Before Onshore Courts
bilateral treaties with France, India, China, Kazakhstan and the United Kingdom. In 2020, India formally recognised the UAE as a recip - rocating territory for civil judgments, covering both onshore and free zone courts. Although the UAE–UK treaty initially excluded enforcement, a 2022 UAE Min - istry of Justice memo confirmed that UK judgments may now be enforced in the UAE under the principle of reciprocity, following the UK High Court’s decision in Lenkor Energy Trading DMCC v Puri . These treaties form a robust cross-border framework for the enforcement of judgments within the UAE. Before Offshore Courts DIFC Courts The DIFC Courts have signed bilateral memoranda of guidance on enforcement with several foreign courts, including the High Court of England and Wales, the High Court of Hong Kong, the Supreme Court of Singapore and the Federal Court of Malaysia. These agreements promote mutual understanding and co- operation in the recognition and enforcement of mon - ey judgments. The DIFC is bound by the treaties ratified by the UAE. Accordingly, the DIFC Court will conform to such trea - ties and enforce any such foreign judgments, orders or awards. In order to ensure enforcement of a foreign judgment, the following factors are to be considered: • the judgment must be final and conclusive, even though it is subject to appeal; • the DIFC Courts will not enforce certain types of foreign judgments (eg, judgments ordering the pay - ment of taxes, fines or penalties); and • the foreign court must have had jurisdiction to determine the dispute, according to the DIFC Rules on the Conflict of Laws – the DIFC Courts will gen - erally consider the foreign court to have had the required jurisdiction only where the person against whom the judgment was given: (a) was present in the jurisdiction at the time that the proceedings were commenced; (b) was the claimant or counterclaimant in the proceedings; (c) submitted to the jurisdiction of the foreign
515 CHAMBERS.COM
Powered by FlippingBook