of an International Judgment
experience, and enforcing that judgment in
a different jurisdiction can be even more
so. The goalposts are slowly changing,
with the legal landscape gradually coming
into line with the commercial reality of
multi-jurisdictional transactions.
Union (EU) member states is now a
January 2015, the Brussels Recast
Regulation
commercial matters between member states.
The Brussels Recast Regulation has
simplified the enforcement process, which
is to be welcomed by practitioners across
European borders. A judgment creditor is
no longer required to seek a declaration
of enforceability of a European judgment.
It now means that a judgment can be
enforced in another member state of the
EU as if it had been delivered in that state
itself. Certain exceptions to enforcement
understandably apply, including a refusal
of recognition on the basis that the
judgment would be manifestly contrary to
that state's public policy.
The Brussels Recast Regulation
introduced a significant change which will
be of particular interest to clients dealing
in cross-border transactions. The EU now
recognizes that the parties to a contract
have the right to subject their commercial
agreement to the exclusive jurisdiction of
a particular EU member state. Previous
legislation required one party of the
agreement to be EU domiciled. This has
now been abolished. It means that the
European Courts are now an open forum
for international contractual disputes. Two
non-EU parties can elect that a dispute
between them will be governed by a
particular EU member state's court.
In general terms, before seeking to
recognize and enforce your judgment in
another member state you should:
judgment;
which is annexed to the Brussels
Recast Regulation
of the judgment and the certificate.
recognizing and enforcing an EU
judgment will be specific to each member
state. For example in Ireland, the Brussels
Recast Regulation has been implemented
in a practical sense by the Rules of
the Superior Courts.
you to enforce a judgment in an EU
jurisdiction, you contact your Primerus
counterpart to ascertain exactly how that
can be achieved.
me to go into detail on the various
methods of enforcing non-EU judgments
within the EU and so I will focus primarily
on the newest cowboy in town the
Hague Convention on the Choice of Court
Agreements
that this particular Hague Convention
has been around for 11 years, but it only
came into effect on October 1, 2015.
Although signed by Mexico in 2007 and
since then by the EU, the United States,
Singapore and the Ukraine, it could only
come into effect three months following
the ratification by the second signatory.
Therefore the ratification by the EU of the
Convention in June 2015 paved the way for
its enforceability in October of last year.
The most recent ratification of the
Convention came on June 2, 2016, by
Singapore, which signed up to the Hague
Convention in March 2015.
The Hague Convention provides for
greater autonomy for contracting parties
in terms of choosing a court to govern a
dispute arising from their agreement. It
Litigation and Dispute Resolution Team. She
specializes in advising about contractual and
financial services disputes involving banking,
insurance and funds, as well as advising
corporate clients and financial institutions on
regulatory enforcement and corporate crime.
partner of Leman Solicitors. He is head of
the Litigation and Dispute Resolution team.
His primary practice is resolving commercial
disputes, both domestic and international before
the courts and in arbitration.
8 - 34 Percy Place
Dublin, Ireland 4
ldaly@leman.ie
lfenelon@leman.ie