There are several ways to enforce a foreign judgment in England & Wales, depending on the jurisdiction where the judgment has been made. For instance, judgments from the EU countries, Norway, Switzerland and Iceland are covered by European treaty law. Common law applies to judgments of the countries with which England does not have any reciprocal agreements in place.

When it comes to enforcement of judgments made by Indian courts in England & Wales, the process is fairly simple and straightforward. There is a reciprocal agreement called Foreign Judgments (Reciprocal Enforcement) Act 1933 (FJA 1933). This legislation provides for reciprocal arrangements between the countries, which allow the judgment obtained in an English court to be registered for enforcement in the enforcing country. The same applies to a foreign judgment’s enforcement in England & Wales. The procedure for enforcement is governed by the rules of the relevant court and, before enforcing the judgment, it must be registered first. This gives the defendant an opportunity to oppose or appeal registration on certain limited grounds. Once the process of registration is complete, the judgment will be enforced in the same way as if it was obtained in that country. There is a limitation period of 6 years under the FJA 1933 from the date of judgment.

When there is no international agreement, then the procedure is to bring a separate claim in the English court. A good example of a country that does not have any such agreement with England is Russian Federation.

The process to enforce a Russian court judgment involves issuing a claim to collect a judgment debt based on the decision of the Russian court. Such judgment must be final and conclusive on merits and contain a specific amount of money. If the defendant is based outside England & Wales, then it will be necessary to obtain a permission to serve the claim out of the jurisdiction (which is subject to court’s discretion, but usually would be granted upon considering the evidence of the debtor having assets in England & Wales). The defendant will then get an opportunity to put a defence which will be heard by the English court. An example of a valid defence can be that the foreign judgment (Russian in this instance) was obtained by fraud.

Examples where the English court will not enforce a foreign judgment would be if it is contrary to public policy in England