Enforcement of SICC Judgments

As Singapore is a Contracting State under the 2005 Hague Convention on Choice of Court Agreements (“Convention”), contracting states for whom the Convention has entered into force are obligated to recognise and enforce an SICC Judgment, unless one of the limited grounds for refusal of recognition or enforcement specified under Article 9 of the Convention applies.

Singapore has entered into bilateral treaties, Memorandums of Understanding (“MOUs”) and/or Memorandums of Guidance as to the Enforcement of Money Judgments (“MOGs”) with several countries, under which an SICC Judgment may be recognised or enforced in. Please note that such bilateral treaties, MOUs or MOGs may have conditions that need to be satisfied before an SICC Judgment may be recognised or enforced. Independent legal advice should be sought when seeking to enforce an SICC Judgment under such treaties, MOUs or MOGs. Click here for the list of MOGs to-date.

The Reciprocal Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act (“REFJA”) allows for the mutual recognition and enforcement of judgments including judicial settlements, consent judgments, money and non-money judgments and interlocutory orders from countries covered by the REFJA. An SICC Judgment may be enforceable in those countries under the relevant reciprocal framework of that country.

Most countries have a common law or civil law legal system. SICC Judgments may be enforceable in both common law and civil law jurisdictions.

Enforcement in common law jurisdictions can generally be done by commencing an action against the judgment debtor on a debt, with the SICC Judgment being used as evidence of that debt. This generally means that there is unlikely to be re-litigation on the merits of the original action. This would facilitate obtaining a judgment on the debt in the relevant common law country.

An SICC Judgment may also be enforceable in a civil law jurisdiction. There are many civil law jurisdictions with codes that provide for the enforcement of foreign judgments upon certain requirements being met. Some common requirements are as follows:

• the court that issued the judgment had jurisdiction over the matter;

• the judgment is final, was obtained in accordance with due process, and is not against the public policy of the enforcing jurisdiction; and

• there is reciprocity in the recognition and enforcement of judgments between the court that issued the judgment and the court that is asked to enforce the judgment.

Judgments of the Supreme Court of Singapore (of which the SICC is a part) have been enforced in civil law jurisdictions like China, Japan and Vietnam.