In this article, Duran Ross and Nicola Thompson discuss the available methods for enforcing a foreign judgment in England and Wales, and look ahead to the Hague Judgments Convention coming into force in July 2025 and its implications for international enforcement.
This article first appeared on the Practical Law Dispute Resolution column on 26 June 2025. Reproduced from Practical Law with the permission of the publishers. For further information visit www.practicallaw.com.
From 1 July 2025, the enforcement of foreign civil and commercial judgments in England and Wales (as well as the enforcement of domestic judgments abroad) will become significantly more streamlined as the Hague Convention of 2 July 2019 on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments in Civil or Commercial Matters (the Hague Judgments Convention) takes effect. This development follows the UK's ratification of the Hague Judgments Convention on 27 June 2024. Although the Hague Judgments Convention was, at least initially, to apply only to England and Wales, it has since been declared that it will also apply to Scotland and Northern Ireland. Its commencement represents an important development in the UK's legal framework for cross-border disputes.
The Hague Judgments Convention is designed to provide a uniform and predictable mechanism for the recognition and enforcement of civil and commercial judgments between contracting states. Its objective is to increase judicial co-operation, which will serve to reduce the complexity, time and cost associated with enforcing foreign judgments, and to provide greater legal certainty for parties engaged in international transactions. The Hague Judgments Convention is particularly significant in the post-Brexit context, where the previous EU-wide frameworks for judgment enforcement no longer apply to the UK.
Historically, enforcement of judgments between the UK and EU member states and certain EFTA states was, broadly, governed by instruments including the Recast Brussels Regulation and the 2007 Lugano Convention. However, once the UK left the European Union, the European regime ceased to apply to judgments in proceedings issued after 31 December 2020, leaving parties reliant on common law, the Hague Convention on Choice of Court Agreements 2005 (2005 Hague Convention) (which applied to the UK by virtue of its membership of the EU but continued to apply as the UK rejoined from the moment it left the EU) and assorted bilateral or reciprocal arrangements.
The current avenues for enforcement of foreign judgments in England and Wales can be summarised as follows:
European regime. Still relevant to a limited extent, in respect of judgments issued in proceedings commenced before 31 December 2020 from EU/certain EFTA states.
Statutory regimes. Commonwealth and some other countries benefit from reciprocal enforcement arrangements under statutes, the Administration of Justice Act 1920 and the Foreign Judgments (Reciprocal Enforcement) Act 1933. (There is also law governing the enforcement of judgments from Scotland or Northern Ireland.)
2005 Hague Convention. This applies where there is an exclusive jurisdiction clause in favour of a contracting state's courts – contracting states are required to enforce judgments from those courts. However, its application is narrow and does not cover non-exclusive (or potentially asymmetric) clauses.
Common law. Generally, foreign judgments not covered by (or meeting the requirements of) the above may be enforced at common law by bringing a fresh action on the judgment. The English court will generally enforce the foreign judgment as a debt, provided certain criteria are met (such as finality, jurisdiction, and absence of fraud or public policy concerns).
The Hague Judgments Convention will create a uniform framework that covers a broad range of civil and commercial judgments (judgment being defined as "any decision on the merits given by a court"). This includes non-money awards such as final injunctions or orders for specific performance of a contract, cost awards and (apparently, as referenced by Article 12(1)(b)) default judgments.
In comparison with other regimes, the Hague Judgments Convention has a wider application than the 2005 Hague Convention (as described above). Although the Hague Judgments Convention shares some conceptual similarities with the Recast Brussels Regulation, it has a more limited scope, in that the Hague Judgments Convention applies to judgments in civil and commercial matters, but expressly excludes certain categories, such as revenue, customs, and administrative matters, family law matters, insolvency and analogous matters, the carriage of passengers and goods, certain maritime matters, intellectual property rights, defamation; privacy, and arbitration. It is therefore essential for parties to consider whether their judgment falls within the Hague Judgments Convention's scope before seeking to rely on its provisions.
Notably, while the Recast Brussels Regulation was an EU-specific instrument designed to facilitate recognition and enforcement of judgments among Member States, the Hague Judgments Convention seeks to establish a global network. Thus far, the contracting states are UK, European Union (except Denmark), Ukraine and Uruguay, and the Hague Judgments Convention will come into effect in Albania, Montenegro and Andorra in 2026. Other jurisdictions, including the United States and Russia, have signed but not yet ratified. Once it comes fully into force for all signatories and as others ratify, it should offer significant benefits for international litigation, including simpler processes for recognising judgments, reduced legal costs and increased legal certainty for businesses with cross-border operations.
The Hague Judgments Convention will apply to judgments given in claims initiated on or after 1 July 2025, so litigants with ongoing proceedings or older judgments must continue to rely on the existing bases for enforcement.
Procedural steps required under the Hague Judgments Convention involve an application to the competent authority in the state where enforcement is sought. In the UK, an application must be made to the High Court to register the judgment before it is enforced, confirming that the requirements of the Hague Judgments Convention are met. These include that the judgment has effect in the state of origin and is enforceable there (Article 4(3)) and that one of the jurisdictional bases for recognition and enforcement is met (Articles 5 and 6).
The Hague Judgments Convention sets out specific grounds on which recognition and enforcement may be refused (Article 7), such as manifest incompatibility with public policy, lack of proper service, or fraud. Importantly, the Hague Judgments Convention does not permit a review of the merits of the original judgment, focusing instead on whether the judgment meets the Hague Judgments Convention's jurisdictional and procedural requirements (Article 4(2)).
The imminent entry into force of the Hague Judgments Convention in England and Wales is expected to strengthen the UK's reputation as a leading forum for international dispute resolution. The hope is that more countries will ratify the Hague Judgments Convention in the coming years, further extending the reach of this harmonised regime and offering a consistency in enforcement akin to the well-established New York Convention for arbitral awards.
In summary, from 1 July 2025, parties to the Hague Judgments Convention seeking to enforce foreign civil and commercial judgments in England and Wales (and vice versa) will benefit from a more predictable and efficient process under the Hague Judgments Convention, provided their claims fall within its scope and are commenced on or after the effective date. For judgments outside the Hague Judgments Convention's scope or issued prior to this date, the existing enforcement framework will continue to apply, making it essential for parties to seek specialist advice on the most appropriate enforcement route.
