The Hague 2019 Convention for the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judicial Decisions: A Comparative Study

This article deals with the provisions of the 2019 Hague Convention for the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judicial Judgments drafted by the Hague Conference on Private International Law as an attempt to remove legal obstacles that stand in the way of enforcing foreign judicial decisions in various countries of the world. This article presents a comparative study between the rules governing the recognition and enforcement of foreign judicial decisions in the jurisdictions of the Latin Civil Law School, such as France and Egypt, and the rules in force in the countries of the Anglo-Saxon Common Law School, such as England and the United States of America, to show the similarities and differences between the two schools. This article will highlight the attempt of the authors of the 2019 Hague Convention to borrow ideas from the Civil Law School and the Anglo-Saxon Common Law School to be used in drafting uniform rules for the recognition and enforcement of foreign judicial rulings in an unconventional manner. The provisions of the Hague Convention 2019 have pervaded the unification of the agreement with indirect public jurisdiction criterions and made it the only way for recognition or enforcement of a foreign judicial decision. The convention also intended to limit grounds of refusal to recognize or enforce a foreign judicial ruling in and subject them to the discretion of the Court where the recognition or enforcement is requested. Finally, this article demonstrates how the Hague Convention 2019 rules work to integrate the provisions of the convention within the national legal system, with an overview of the legal implications of Egypt's adoption of the provisions of the convention.