Originally from Enforcement of Money Judgments

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I.  PRESENT ATTITUDE TOWARD ENFORCEMENT OF FOREIGN MONEY JUDGMENTS

A. Describe the receptiveness of your government (including courts) toward enforcement of foreign money judgments.

In general terms, judges are hesitant of recognizing foreign judgments and awards n Ecuador.

A new Ecuadorian Civil Procedure Act (COGEP) was approved in May 2015. COGEP introduced a myriad of procedural reforms to the Ecuadorian procedural system, including important reforms regarding the homologation and execution of foreign judgements and arbitral awards. After only onver two years applying the COGEP the law was changed again.  

In August 2018 a new Law was enacted. The Law for Promotion of Production (LPP), amended the framework for the enforcement, only of arbitral awards, deleting the homologation procedure present in the COGEP. Foreign court judgments are still subject to the homologation process before they can be executed. Although the new LPP, intends to simply the execution of awards it seems it was not done with sufficient thoroughness to fully change the process. We have yet to see the implications of the new LPP.

B. Briefly describe recent illustrative attempts, whether successful or unsuccessful, to enforce a foreign money judgment in your country, particularly with regard to enforcement of any judgments from United States courts.

There have been quite a few recent attempts to enforce money judgments in Ecuador. On October 7 2016 the Provincial Court of Guayaquil recognized the validity of a monetary judgement dictated in México in favor of Televisa.  However, we know of various foreign awards that have not been able to be enforced in Ecuador in the last couple of years. The difficulty of enforcing awards gave rise to the new LPP, which intends to simplify the execution of international awards. The execution of foreign judgments is still subject to the proceeding under the COGEP.

C. Describe any proposed legislation or other governmental action in your country that could significantly affect the enforcement of foreign money judgments.

We expect some changes in the enforcement of money judgements in the near future, especially since the last reform regarding execution of inernational awards did not include relevant aspects tht now seem to be in contradiction with the new LPP. We also know that there mighe be a new Arbitaton and Mediation Law that could afect the enforcement of arbitral awards, although there is no certainty that this will happen.