Cross-Border enforcement is enjoying something of a moment. Over the last few years, we have witnessed sustained efforts to improve enforcement across borders. The New York Convention continues to gain signatories, with only a handful of jurisdictions now outside its scope. The Hague Convention on Choice of Court Agreements, which allows judgments of one jurisdiction to be enforced in another, provided a choice of court clause exists, has gained significant momentum, with numerous new signatories and its first enforcement case. The more ambitious Hague Judgments Convention, which allows for cross-border recognition of judgments in specified situations, even without a choice of court clause, was concluded in July 2019, after 27 years in development, and now has its first signatories. The Singapore Mediation Convention, which aims to ensure cross-border enforceability of settlement agreements arising from mediation, was launched last year and has been ratified by several jurisdictions.
It is in this context that we are pleased to share this new and expanded edition of Baker McKenzie’s Cross-Border Enforcement Center. We have drawn upon the expertise of our global dispute resolution team, consisting of over 1,000 lawyers in 78 offices, to provide you with a high-level comparative analysis of the enforcement of court judgments and arbitration awards across 44 jurisdictions, 13 of which are new for this edition. For the first time, we are pleased to offer this important information in an electronic handbook format, as well as the existing interactive website format. If you have any additional questions, please do not hesitate to contact our practitioners listed throughout the document.