Canadian Courts Enforce Foreign Non‐Money Judgments
| Published date | 01 July 2007 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.2007.00646_2.x |
| Date | 01 July 2007 |
| Author | Richard Frimpong Oppong |
clarify these limits.The test they propose to distinguishdiscriminatory fromlaw-
ful stop and searches is not only impracticable: it is also incompatible with the
non-discrimination norms of the Race Relations Act1976 and the ECHR.
Canadian Courts Enforce Foreign Non-Money
Judgments
Richard Frimpong Oppong
n
INTRODUCTION
A long settledcommon law rule is thatcourts can enforce only¢nal money judg-
ments fromforeign courts.
1
For centuries, the remarkable act of international judi-
cial cooperation that allowed foreign judgment creditors to enforce foreign
judgments in another state’s court was restricted to money judgments.The impli-
cation of this rule was that equitable remedies like speci¢c performance and
injunctions were not enforceable in a foreign court. The judgment creditor had
to institute afresh action and adducefresh evidence forsimilar relief in the foreign
court; he had to re-litigate the cause of action.
Two reasons can be pro¡ered forthe rule. Historically, the proper action for the
enforceme ntof foreign judgments was an action in assumpsit.
2
This common law
action required that the defendant owe the plainti¡ a sum certain in money. In
Sadler vRobins,
3
it was held that ‘the law implies a promise to pay a de¢nite, not
an inde¢nite sum.’
4
At common law the foreign judgment created an implied
promise and obligation to pay the judgment sum. It was reasoned that where a
competentcourt had adjudicated a certain sumto be due, a legal obl igation arose
to pay it, and an action of debt to enforce the jud gment maybe mai ntained.
5
It did
not matter where that promise was made or the obligation arose; a man indebted
to another in one place i s indebted to him i n all places.
6
n
LLB,BL (Ghana) LLM (Cantab) LLM (Harvard).
1 Some writers have argued that there existed an equitable jurisdiction to enforce foreign non-
money judgments.Se e R.W. White,‘Enforcementof Foreign Judgments in Equity’ (1980^1982) 9
SydneyL Rev 630; D.Buzard,‘U.S. Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Country Injunctive
and Speci¢c PerformanceDecrees’ (1989^9 0)20 Cal W Int’l LJ 91.
2 See H. E. Read, Recognition and Enforcementof ForeignJudgmentsin the Common Law Unitsof the British
Commonwealth(Cambridge: Harvard UniversityPress, 1938) 111^115;Wal k er vWit ter (1778) 99 ER 1.
3Sadler vRobins (1808)170 ER 948.
4ibid,948.
5RussellvSmyth (1842)152 ER 343.
6Whitehead vBrown (1793) 83 ER 315.
Enforcement of Foreign Non-Money Judgments
670 r2007 The Author.Journal Compilation r20 07The Modern Law Review Limited.
(2007) 70(4)MLR 654^679
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