Enforcement Of Foreign Judgments In England: A Whistle-stop Tour

Published date05 July 2021
Subject MatterGovernment, Public Sector, Litigation, Mediation & Arbitration, Constitutional & Administrative Law, Arbitration & Dispute Resolution, Trials & Appeals & Compensation
Law FirmWalker Morris
AuthorGwendoline Davies, Nick Lees and Nick McQueen

In this factsheet, we explain the different regimes for enforcing foreign judgments in England - a topical subject post Brexit!

European regime (before 1 January 2021)

For proceedings started on or before 31 December 2020, the Recast Brussels Regulation (Brussels Recast) governs UK enforcement of judgments from EU member state courts 1. The 2007 Lugano Convention (Lugano) applies to judgments from Iceland, Norway and Switzerland 2.

The enforcement procedure is straightforward. A prescribed form of certificate must be obtained from the original court and the certificate and judgment served on the debtor before enforcement. The creditor is entitled to enforce the judgment as if it were an English one, using any of the available enforcement methods such as charging orders and third party debt orders.

A key feature of Brussels Recast, unlike Lugano, is that the creditor does not have to jump through the additional hoop of applying to the English court to register the judgment before enforcement, reducing time and costs.

Uncontested claims for a specific sum can be enforced under the European Enforcement Order Regulation, a streamlined procedure applying in all member states excluding Denmark. The creditor applies to the original court for a certificate which will be granted if certain conditions are satisfied, including that the proceedings met prescribed minimum procedural standards. The certificate does not need to be served on the debtor, it simply needs to be lodged at the enforcing court. The certified judgment is then enforceable in the same way as an English judgment.

European regime (1 January 2021 onwards)

Post Brexit, the above frameworks do not apply in relation to proceedings started on or after 1 January 2021. The UK did apply to join Lugano in its own right but we understand that, on 23 June 2021, the European Commission (EC) formally stated that it did not consent to the UK's accession application. As the unanimous consent of contracting parties to Lugano is required to allow the accession of another state, the options now available for parties seeking to enforce European judgments in England are as set out below.

Hague Convention

The EU member states and the UK (plus Mexico, Singapore and Montenegro) are all bound by the Hague Convention on Choice of Court Agreements 2005, which gives effect to exclusive jurisdiction clauses agreed on or after 1 October 2015 and provides for the recognition and enforcement of resulting judgments. It covers...

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