<p>National courts are routinely confronted with applications seeking to enforce the judgments of other foreign national courts. Most legal systems have very well-established legal regimes for adjudicating such applications. Rarely is a national court ever confronted with an application seeking to enforce a judgment of an international or regional court<xref ref-type="fn" rid="fn1"><sup>1</sup></xref> (hereafter ‘international judgment’). Indeed, until recently, individuals were either without standing or had limited standing before international courts and could not bring claims against states before courts such as the International Court of Justice. That is no longer the case. In addition to the proliferation of international courts with compulsory jurisdiction and the judicialisation of international dispute settlement procedures, there is a significant number of treaties that grant rights to individuals to directly sue states and international institutions in international courts.<xref ref-type="fn" rid="fn2"><sup>2</sup></xref></p>
<p>This raises a fundamental question: how can an individual who obtains a judgment from an international court enforce the judgment against the state party involved? Various mechanisms already exist for enforcing international judgments. These mechanisms include the use of international non-judicial institutions such as the Security Council, self-help and diplomatic negotiations. However, such alternatives are very ‘political’ and cannot be directly invoked by individuals. They were developed at a time when inter-state litigation at the international level was the norm. They are ill suited for individual-state litigation before international courts. One other mechanism that has been suggested by some commentators for an individual who obtains a judgment from an international court to enforce the judgment is a national court.<xref ref-type="fn" rid="fn3"><sup>3</sup></xref> It is through this route Mr Chude Mba sought to enforce an international judgment in Ghana – a judgment of the ECOWAS Court of Justice.</p>
<p>In the <italic>Mba</italic> case,<xref ref-type="fn" rid="fn4"><sup>4</sup></xref> the applicant sought an order from the High Court of Ghana to enforce an $800,000 award (in damages) and 500,000 naira (in costs) default judgment obtained from the ECOWAS Court of Justice. The applicant had successfully sued the government of Ghana for violations of his fundamental human rights. As the High Court rightly put it, the central issue before it was ‘whether this Court, or for that matter any other Courts in Ghana, can recognise and enforce the orders or judgment of the ECOWAS Community Court’.<xref ref-type="fn" rid="fn5"><sup>5</sup></xref></p>
<p>Interestingly, this is not the first time a Ghanaian court has been confronted with an application to enforce an international judgment. The <italic>NML Capital</italic> case<xref ref-type="fn" rid="fn6"><sup>6</sup></xref> involved the seizure of an Argentinean warship in Ghana at the instance of some private creditors as part of an action to enforce a foreign judgment against Argentina. It was argued that Ghana was bound by...</p>
