Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judicial Decisions in the USA

The United States is not a party to either bilateral or multilateral international conventions on the mutual recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments ^[2] .

As a general rule, foreign judgments are recognized by US courts on the basis of international politeness (comity between nations) ^[3] or reciprocity (reciprocity). However, most US states have laws to regulate the enforcement of a foreign judgment.

About 30 states have adopted the Uniform Foreign Money-Judgments Recognition Act - UFMJRA of 1962 ^[3] . This Uniform Law establishes the procedure by which a foreign court decision is recognized in the United States and receives a status equal to the status of decisions made in a different US state than the one in which the enforcement of the decision is requested. The Uniform Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act (UEFJA; enacted in 47 states, the District of Columbia and the Virgin Islands), which provides for a registration system to enforce decisions, in turn, applies to such decisions. ships handed down in a different state than the one where execution is sought. A judgment made in one state will be enforced in other states in accordance with the “Recognition and Confidence Clause” (Section 1 of Section IV of the US Constitution, which provides for the recognition of laws and judgments of one state in any other state) ^[4] . The uniform law on the recognition of foreign decisions on the collection of funds does not apply to foreign court decisions relating to taxation or internal affairs of the state (domestic relations), as well as penalties and penalties, alimony obligations (clause 2 of article 1 of UFMJRA) ^[5] .

A foreign court decision must be final and enforceable. According to the Uniform Law, a decision can be final, even though it is appealed or is being appealed in the country of origin (article 2 UFMJRA) ^[5] . In accordance with U.S. law, a person who requires recognition and enforcement of a foreign judgment must file a lawsuit with a competent U.S. court. The court decides on the recognition of a foreign court decision ^[2] .

U.S. courts generally recognize foreign judgments issued in full and fair trial on the merits of an impartial and independent tribunal. A foreign court must have the competence to consider the case in relation to the subject of the dispute and in relation to the parties to the case; in addition, the defendant must be duly notified of the filing of the claim and the holding of court hearings ^[6] .

UFMJRA provides a simplified procedure for the execution of recognized decisions, extending to them the application of UEFJA standards (registration procedure for execution).

Article 7 of the UFMJRA does not preclude the recognition of foreign judgments in other cases not specified in the Uniform Law. In states that have not accepted the UFMJRA, the plaintiff may file a common law claim recognizing a foreign decision to recover funds. According to Hilton v. Guyot (1895), if in a foreign country whose court made a decision, decisions of US courts are recognized and executed, and if the content of the court decision is not offensive to a US court, the US court will recognize such a decision ^[7] .

Recognition and enforcement of foreign court decisions in the United States cannot be made through the use of a court order (as indicated in title 28, paragraph 1782 of the US Code) ^[8] .

There are a number of reasons when recognition of a foreign judgment may be denied (section 4 UFMJRA). ^[5] The decision is not recognized as final and cannot be recognized if:

1. the decision is made in a legal system that does not provide an impartial review of a dispute or does not meet the requirements for a due process of law;
2. the foreign court did not have jurisdiction over the defendant;
3. the foreign court had no jurisdiction over the subject of the dispute.

Also, the UFMJRA states that a decision shall not be recognized if:

1. the defendant in the process in a foreign court did not receive notice of the trial within the time period necessary for him to prepare for the trial;
2. the decision was obtained by fraud;
3. the basis of the dispute over which the decision is made is contrary to the public order of the state where recognition is required;
4. the decision is in conflict with another final decision;
5. the consideration of the case in a foreign court was contrary to the agreement of the parties, according to which the dispute should be resolved otherwise, and not in the court that made the decision;
6. the jurisdiction of a foreign court was based only on the personal delivery of the summons to the person, and this foreign court was a really inconvenient place to consider the dispute.

An example of a refusal to recognize and enforce a foreign judgment is Stiftung v. VEB Carl Zeiss 1968. In this case, the US court refused to recognize and enforce the judgment made by the GDR court. The federal judge explained his decision by the fact that in his opinion the procedure for considering the case was not fair and that the judges were influenced by the leaders of the socialist state. ^[9]

• Refusal to recognize and enforce a foreign arbitral award

• M. M. Boguslavsky “Private International Law” 6th edition of M., “Norm” 2009
• Robert E. Lutz "A Lawyer's Handbook for Enforcing Foreign Judgments in the United States and Abroad" Cambridge University Press 2006
• Richard Schaffer, Filiberto Agusti, Beverley Earle “International Business Law and Its Environment” 7th edition, Cengage Learning 2008

• Enforcement of judgments
• UNIFORM FOREIGN MONEY-JUDGMENTS RECOGNITION ACT
• US Code