The Hague Conference Adopts a New Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments in Civil or Commercial Matters

Abstract

On July 2, 2019, the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH) adopted a new multilateral Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments in Civil or Commercial Matters.1 When brought into force,2 the Convention will commit contracting states to recognize and enforce civil and commercial judgments rendered by the courts of other contracting states, and to do so without a substantive review of the merits of the underlying dispute. The goal of the Convention is to fill a significant gap in the field of private international law by establishing for foreign judicial judgments a regime to complement the 2005 Hague Convention on Choice of Court Agreements,3 and, in some respects, the 1958 New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards.4 If widely adopted and fairly implemented, the new Convention could contribute significantly to the stability and predictability of transborder commercial transactions and thereby promote trade, investment, and the growth of the global economy. Traditionally, the recognition and enforcement of judgments rendered by foreign courts has been a matter exclusively governed by the domestic law and practice of each state and therefore subject to differences in national approaches to such matters as jurisdiction,