Foreign Judgments in United Kingdom

Definition of Foreign Judgments

In accordance with the work A Dictionary of Law, this is a description of Foreign Judgments : The *judgment of a foreign court may be enforced in England provided that the foreign court was competent and that the judgment is for a definite sum and is final and conclusive. At common law a foreign court is regarded as competent if (1) the judgment debtor, being a defendant in the original court, submitted to the jurisdiction of that court by voluntarily appearing in the proceedings otherwise than for the purpose of either protecting or obtaining the release of property seized (or threatened with seizure) in the proceedings or of contesting the jurisdiction of that court; (2) the judgment debtor was claimant in or counterclaimed in the proceedings in the original court; (3) the judgment debtor, being a defendant in the original court, had agreed before the proceedings commenced to submit to the jurisdiction of that court or of the courts of that country; or (4) the judgment debtor, being a defendant in the original court, was resident in the country of that court when the proceedings were instituted (or, in the case of a corporation, had its principal place of business in that country).

In addition to the common-law rule, foreign judgments may be registered for enforcement by the English courts under a number of statutory powers, notably those contained in the Foreign Judgments (Reciprocal Enforcement) Act 1933 and the Civil Jurisdiction and Judgments Act 1982, which derive from such international conventions as the *Brussels Convention and the Lugano Convention.