MACAU SAR, CHINA Law and Practice Contributed by: João Nuno Riquito, Bruno Almeida, Bernice Kwok and Daniel de Senna Fernandes, Riquito Advogados
• attachment of a third-party debt owed to the debtor (eg, a debtor’s bank account). 9.5 Enforcement of a Judgment From a Foreign Country Unless otherwise provided for in international agreements in force in the Macau SAR, judg- ments and arbitral awards from a foreign country can only be enforced in the Macau SAR after revision and confirmation by its courts. Such confirmation is not necessary when the for- eign judgment is used in the Macau SAR only as evidence of certain facts in court proceedings. Confirmation is subject to the following require- ments: • the document is authentic and the decision is written plainly; • the judgment is res judicata in the country of issuance; • the matter does not fall within the exclusive competence of the Macau SAR courts and the issuing court’s competence was not fraudulent; • the matter has not been previously submitted to litigation, nor has it been previously decid- ed as res judicata in the Macau SAR; • verification of the regular summoning of the defendant and that the due process principles have been observed; and • the decision will not cause a result that goes against public policy. The defendant is summoned and has 15 days to offer a defence, whereas the claimant may submit rejoinder within ten days. Besides the non-verification of any of the above requirements, the defendant may also oppose the confirmation on the following grounds:
• there is a judgment decided as res judicata that the award pending confirmation was issued under prevarication or corruption of the judge; • there is a document that the defendant was not aware of or was unable to use during the initial proceedings, which would by itself be sufficient to lead to a decision more favour- able to them; and • there is a previous judgment decided as res judicata which is contrary to the decision under confirmation. Before submission to trial, the proceedings are further analysed by the public prosecutor. 10. Appeal 10.1 Levels of Appeal or Review to a Litigation The Macau SAR Code of Civil Procedure pro- vides for ordinary and extraordinary appeals. Two types of ordinary appeals exist: an appeal can be filed to the Court of Second Instance from a judgment by a Court of First Instance, and to the Court of Final Appeal from a judgment by the Court of Second Instance. Beyond these are found so-called extraordinary appeals. • In the form of a petition to review a judg- ment (eg, when a defendant’s confession is found to be null and void by a later judgment, although it served as justifying grounds for a previous one) and opposition by a third party. • In the event of collusion between the origi- nal complainant and plaintiff with the goal of being granted a favourable judgment, under false pretexts and at the expense of someone
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