The High Court has held that there is no common law rule
preventing enforcement of a foreign judgment in England and Wales
simply because it is not presently or fully enforceable in the
relevant foreign jurisdiction:
Invest Bank PSC v El-Husseini [2023] EWHC 2302
(Comm).
A foreign money judgment is enforceable at common law by suing
on the judgment as a debt. The key requirement is that the foreign
judgment must be final and conclusive in its jurisdiction of
origin. In the present case, an Abu Dhabi judgment for amounts due
under two guarantees was not enforceable locally, due to a
subsequent change in the law of the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
However, in the court's view, a mere impediment to local
enforcement did not mean the judgment failed to be final and
conclusive. It therefore remained enforceable at common law in this
jurisdiction. The judge noted, however, that if his conclusion on
this issue were essential to the outcome of the case (which it was
not,
