As stated in its preamble, the Hague-19 Convention is to create “a uniform set of core rules on recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments in civil or commercial matters, to facilitate the effective recognition and enforcement of such judgments”. Pursuant to the Hague-19 Convention, a judgment given by a court of a contracting state shall be recognised and enforced in another contracting state in accordance with the relevant provisions of the convention, and recognition or enforcement may be refused only on the grounds specified in the convention.

With the conditions for recognition and enforcement as well as the grounds for refusal set out expressly and clearly in the Hague-19 Convention, applications for recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments become much more straightforward, with more predictable outcomes, making cross-border dispute resolution less costly.

It is noteworthy that the United Kingdom declared that the Hague-19 Convention shall extend to England and Wales only, hence it will not apply in any British Overseas Territories. Having said that, some British Overseas Territories have enacted their own dedicated legislation dealing with recognition and enforcement. For example, the British Virgin Islands has enacted the Reciprocal Enforcement of Judgments Act (Cap 65), the Cayman Islands has the Foreign Judgments Reciprocal Enforcement Act 1996 and Bermuda has the Judgments (Reciprocal Enforcement) Act 1958. There are limits to these statutory schemes, however, with the BVI and Bermuda legislation applying only to monetary judgments from a limited number of jurisdictions, and the Cayman legislation applying only to Australian judgments. While common law enforcement can be used where the legislation does not apply, there is still benefit to be had by these and other British Overseas Territories should the United Kingdom choose to extend the Hague-19 Convention.