At Abdul Razzaq and partners law firm, we do our best to represent our clients’ best interests and present all the facts to the judicial system to ensure that justice takes its course.
Our lawyers are experts in recognizing and enforcing one jurisdiction of judgments rendered in another jurisdiction. They have deep knowledge of bilateral, multilateral treaties, understandings, or unilaterally without an express international agreement. This experience empowers us to successfully defend our clients or raise accusations against a second party.
Under the Civil and Commercial Procedure Law No. 38 of 1980 (the “Law”), judgments and orders enforceable in the State of Kuwait are those issued by the competent Kuwaiti courts.
However, pursuant to an exception stipulated in the law, a decision rendered by courts of the foreign jurisdiction (the “Foreign Judgment”) can be recognized and enforced in the State of Kuwait if granted an exequatur by the Court of First Instance (the “Kuwait Court”) under limited conditions stated in article 199 of the law.
Article 199 of the Law provides that:
“It shall be permissible to order the execution of judgments and orders issued in a foreign country inside Kuwait according to the conditions stipulated in that country for the execution of judgments and orders issued in Kuwait. It shall be excepted from these conditions, judgments, and orders obtained for the benefit of a Kuwaiti individual or entity that are required to be executed on assets owned by a Kuwaiti individual or entity.
Order of execution shall be submitted to the Court of First Instance in accordance with the usual conditions of filing an action, and the execution may not be ordered except after the ascertainment of the following:
- a- The judgment or order is given by a competent court in conformity with the law of the country wherein it is given.
- b- The litigants of the action in respect of which the foreign judgment is given were summoned to appear and were duly represented.
- C- The judgment or order has had the force of the adjudicated order, in accordance with the law of the court which pronounced it.
- d- It is not contradictory to a preceding judgment or order was given by a court in Kuwait; and is not against the ethics or the public order in Kuwait.”
The first paragraph of article 199 above stipulates that the main prerequisite to enforcing a Foreign Judgment in the State of Kuwait is reciprocity. This reciprocity can be proved by a bi-lateral/multilateral treaty providing for the reciprocal enforcement of judgments in the member states or by precedents where sufficient evidence determines that Kuwaiti judgments have been previously recognized and enforced in such foreign countries. It is necessary to highlight that the State of Kuwait has ratified two multilateral treaties in this regard, the “Convention of the League of Arab States on the enforcement of judgments (1952)” and the “Law No. 44 of 1998, ratifying the agreement for the enforcement of judgments and judicial notices in the member states of the GCC”. Regrettably, no treaty has been ratified with the Non-Arab States. As for precedents, they are practically nonexistent, especially with regard to western countries.
