Cross-border enforcement—enforcing foreign judgments in E&W

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This Overview highlights the issues to be considered when seeking to enforce a foreign judgment in England and Wales. For an overview of the:

  1. •

    principles of cross-border enforcement, see: Cross-border enforcement—principles—overview

  2. •

    position when seeking to enforce an English judgment in another jurisdiction, see: Cross-border enforcement—enforcing E&W judgments—overview

Reference to England is to England and Wales, reference to the English courts is to the Courts of England and Wales.

General insight

For practitioners new to this area, Practice Note: Cross-border enforcement—a guide for dispute resolution practitioners provides an insight into the enforcement of English or foreign judgments, settlement agreements and authentic instruments from the perspective of English court proceedings.

What is being enforced?

While most people will be aware that a court judgment can be used to enforce a party’s rights, as determined by the court, there are a number of different types of documents that can be used to set out a party’s enforceable rights. Each of these may be enforceable but different considerations apply depending on the type of document. They are court judgments, tribunal judgments or settlement agreements.

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