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Enforcement of foreign court judgments between different state courts remains an area of challenge and uncertainty worldwide. The lack of bilateral treaties between countries is often cited as a common obstacle to successful implementation. The recognition and enforcement of UK court judgments in the UAE has also been affected by this issue, as there is no bilateral treaty between the UAE and the UK on the enforcement of court judgments, so when seeking enforcement of UK judgments in the UAE, parties have to rely on the 1992 The relevant provisions of Federal Law No. 11 of 2008 (“UAE Civil Code”).
Legislative Dynamics
To simplify the enforcement process, the UAE issued Cabinet Resolution No. 57 of 2018 (“Enforcement Regulations”) to modernize the rules for recognition of judgment and service procedures.Thereafter, Cabinet Resolution No. 33 of 2020 (No. “Cabinet Resolution”) and No. 75 of 2021.
Among other things, in accordance with Article 85(1) of the Enforcement Regulations, the UAE courts will enforce foreign judgments on the following principles reciprocitythat is, as long as the foreign court enforces the judgment of the UAE court, the UAE court will reward it.
Therefore, courts will consider the degree of reciprocity that exists as a matter of practice, although there is no treaty for reciprocity.
Recent case law
The UAE has two court systems:
The UAE’s “onshore” civil law court system handles all disputes between parties on the mainland.
Common law court systems in financial free zones, such as the Dubai International Financial Centre (“international Finance Center”) and Abu Dhabi Integrated Market (“ADGM”) or “offshore” UAE.
UK courts have shown their willingness to recognise and enforce judgments from the UAE court system, as shown below.
Recognition of “offshore” judgments
UK and UAE offshore courts have a proven history of reciprocity.As recently as 2022, the UK High Court has recognised and enforced the DIFC Court’s Barclays v Bavaguthu Raghuram Shetty [2022] EWHC 19 (Communications).
In this case, Dr. Shetty sought to adjourn Barclays’ application for summary judgment in the UK High Court for a number of reasons, including but not limited to:
- The DIFC’s judgment is not final and conclusive;
- the DIFC courts have no jurisdiction; and
- The DIFC judgment is impeachable for fraud, contrary to British public policy or the principles of natural justice.
- The High Court rejected all of the above arguments and fully upheld the DIFC’s decision.
Recognition of “onshore” judgments
It is worth noting that there has also been an important recent example of a Dubai Land Court judgment being recognised and enforced in the UK High Court.
in the case of Lenkor Energy Trading DMCC v Puri [2020] EWHC 75 (QB), pursuant to a tripartite agreement between three entities (including the claimant’s affiliates), the defendant signed a cheque in the name of the Dubai company to secure payment.
When the claimant presented the check, the check was dishonored. Therefore, the plaintiff sought and obtained the judgment of the Dubai Land Court against the defendant, and then sought to enforce that judgment in the United Kingdom.
The defendants refused to enforce on various grounds, including the Dubai court’s judgment against public policy, as the transaction of offering the cheque was itself illegal.
The UK High Court rejected these arguments, confirming that it would be irrelevant even if the UK courts would have approached or analysed the facts differently. Ultimately, the facts pertain to disputes arising under Dubai law, which have been duly ruled by the Dubai courts.
Therefore, the judgment of the Dubai Court was recognized and enforced by the High Court of the United Kingdom.
The defendant appealed the decision. The UK Court of Appeal has since dismissed the appeal and upheld the lower court’s decision (Lenkor Energy Trading DMCC v Puri [2021] EWCA Civilization 770).
UAE Ministry of Justice Announcement
On September 13, 2022, the UAE Ministry of Justice sent a letter to the Director General of the Dubai Courts, instructing the Courts to enforce the judgments and orders of the British Courts (“instruct”).
The directive not only reinforces the principle of reciprocity, but is issued on the basis of the UAE’s successful enforcement of UAE judgments. Prie cases in the British courts. Any such enforcement of UK judgments in UAE courts will of course be subject to the additional requirement of UAE law (beyond reciprocity) that foreign judgments should not contain anything contrary to public order or morals in the UAE.
Comment
Courts in the UAE often use reciprocity as an obstacle to the enforcement of foreign judgments. In this light, these developments are particularly noteworthy and show that the UAE recognizes the real purpose and intent behind the principle of reciprocity among nations.
While there are other reasons to challenge the enforcement of foreign judgments under UAE law, we expect the frequency of enforcement of UK court judgments to increase and become more common in the coming years.
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