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.

To explain the attitude of the Principality of Liechtenstein toward money judgments one has to bear in mind that Liechtenstein is a very small country and occupies an area of approximately 160 km². Liechtenstein has a resident population of approximately 30’000 persons. The neighboring countries are Austria and Switzerland. The official currency is the Swiss Franc (CHF). Due to its geographical situation Liechtenstein has only concluded Execution Agreements with its neighboring countries Switzerland (LGBl. 1970 Nr. 14) and Austria (LGBl. 1975 Nr. 20) concerning court decisions and arbitration awards in civil cases. Generally speaking one can state that Liechtenstein (being a civil law jurisdiction) is not quite receptive in terms of accepting and enforcing judgments from other countries. It has to be stressed that Liechtenstein is neither party to the 1968 Brussels Convention nor to the 1988 Lugano Convention. Although being member of the EEA (European Economic Area), Liechtenstein has shown no intention up to now to join the mentioned Conventions. This means that a judgment originating from a country not being Austria or Switzerland is basically not enforceable in the Principality of Liechtenstein.

At the moment it is not intended that the Principality of Liechtenstein should enter an International Convention concerning enforceability of foreign judgments may they be money judgments or judgments seeking other types of remedies. Presumably this attitude of the Liechtenstein authorities towards foreign money judgments will not change in the near future.