Hague 2019 Convention comes into effect for UK

On 01 July 2025 the UK's ratification of the Hague Convention of 2 July 2019 on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments in Civil or Commercial Matters ("Hague 2019") came into effect.

Increased cross-border enforceability

Hague 2019 provides a framework for the recognition and enforcement of civil or commercial foreign judgments internationally, though it has exclusions, including insolvency judgments. It has the potential to assist with the recognition of final and conclusive judgments given by courts in other contracting states to Hague 2019, which include the EU Member States (other than Denmark), Uruguay, Ukraine, Albania, Andorra and Montenegro. The USA and Russia are both signatories to Hague 2019, but there is currently no expectation that either will ratify it in the near future.

Enforcement of an English judgment

Unlike the 2005 Hague Convention of Choice of Courts Agreements ("Hague 2005"), Hague 2019 is, helpfully, not limited to judgments obtained in proceedings based on exclusive jurisdiction clauses. An English judgment obtained in proceedings relating to a contract with a non-exclusive, or asymmetrical, jurisdiction clause can be enforced in another Hague 2019 member state without going through that state's local process for enforcing foreign judgments, which often require the commencement of fresh proceedings.

A state may refuse to recognise and enforce a judgement under Hague 2019 on certain grounds, including if the judgment would be "manifestly incompatible" with the public policy of the requested state, including "situations where the specific proceedings leading to the judgment were incompatible with fundamental principles of procedural fairness". It remains to be seen whether states, where procedural fairness is questioned, will refuse to recognise the judgment of less internationally established jurisdictions. Restrictive interpretation of 'procedural fairness' may lead to uncertainty and unpredictability in the application of the 2019 Hague Convention and limit its usefulness, but we expect the principle of comity to make disapplication of Hague 2019 on these grounds rare.

Jurisdiction agreements

It is important to note that Hague 2019 does not assist with the enforceability of a non-exclusive or asymmetrical jurisdiction clause at the outset of proceedings, in the way that Hague 2005 does for exclusive jurisdiction agreements. Hague 2019 deals only with the enforcement of judgments once proceedings have concluded.

This matters, because since the UK left the EU, it ceased to be a party to the Brussels (Recast) Regulation and Lugano Conventions, which protect the recognition of jurisdiction clauses in favour of other courts. Courts in states that are members of the Hague 2005 will recognise and enforce an exclusive jurisdiction clause in favour of the English courts, but may not uphold a non-exclusive or asymmetric clause, allowing proceedings to be brought in breach of it. This risk has increased in the case of asymmetric clauses, following a February 2025 decision of the European Court of Justice (for more on which, see here).

Judgments within the UK

The UK initially declared in its ratification of 27 June 2024 that Hague 2019 would extend to England and Wales only. However, on 26 March 2025 the UK deposited a declaration that Hague 2019 would extend to Scotland and Northern Ireland and this took effect on 01 July 2025. This means that judgments of Scottish and Northern Irish courts will be recognised in Hague 2019 member states and vice versa. However, Hague 2019 does not apply to the recognition or enforcement in one UK jurisdiction (eg England and Wales) of judgments obtained in other legal jurisdictions within the UK (eg Scotland) as Hague 2019 contracting states do not have to apply the convention to intra-state matters where there is more than one legal jurisdiction within the state.