On the 24rth of October 2012 the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom handed a decision on the enforceability of foreign judgments reversing the controversial decision of the Court of Appeal in Rubin v Eurofinance [2010] EWCA Civ 895. The importance of the above judgment in the United Kingdom is the fact that thereis no separate rule for judgments given in insolvency proceedings meaning that upon enforcing foreign insolvency orders at common law it is necessary to meet the test set out in Rule 3 of Dicey & Morris, namely that the judgment debtor (i) was present in the foreign jurisdiction at the time proceedings were commenced;(ii) that he claimed or counterclaimed in the foreign proceedings;(iii) that he had submitted to the foreign proceedings by voluntarily appearing; or (v) had agreed to submit to the jurisdiction of the foreign court.
Despite the fact that foreign judgments may be enforced in the United Kingdom via numerous mechanisms including EU Regulations or international conventions, it remains the case that English common law rules will determine whether such a judgment can be enforced as can be seen by the above case which was based on English common law.
The above case can be of guidance for the Cypriot Courts who also have a concept of enforcing foreign judgments at common law.
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