Originally from Enforcement of Money Judgments

Preview Page

I. PRESENT ATTITUDE TOWARD ENFORCEMENT OF FOREIGN MONEY JUDGMENTS

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

German courts will enforce a foreign money judgment provided the requirements of the German Code of Civil Procedure (“ZPO”) §§ 722, 723 and 328 or of EC Regulation 44/2001 on Jurisdiction and the Recognition and Enforcement of Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters (“EC Regulation 2001”) are met - EU Regulation 1215/2012, Jurisdiction and the Recognition and Enforcement of Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters (“EU Regulation 2012”), however, repealed EC Regulation 2001 on January 10, 2015 - or if a treaty is applicable - the applicable treaty requirements are met. If the requirements of the new EU Regulation 2012 or EC Regulation 805/2004 creating a European Enforcement Order for uncontested claims (“EC Regulation 2004”) are met, no enforcement order of the foreign judgment is required in Germany.  Other than the policies embodied there, the German government maintains no official position regarding the enforcement of foreign money judgments. 

In general, German civil procedure does not provide any special procedures for enforcing foreign money judgments versus domestic money judgments. In order to have parallelism with enforceable German titles with regard to enforcements, however, an intermediate step is required if no treaty is applicable (this is the case with the United States). For this purpose, the judgment creditor is directed to have the foreign judgment recognized and declared enforceable by filing a civil action and obtaining a German judgment of enforcement or, to the extent permitted by law, by initiating a summary proceeding (Beschlussverfahren).

An action for a judgment of enforcement is not given any special priority over other civil matters before court. Rather the court hears such cases along with all others generally in the order in which they were filed. For example, in a routine civil action before the Frankfurt am Main Regional Court, the first hearing occurs usually about four to six months after the petition is filed. Generally, the German rules of civil procedure do not provide for enforcement of a foreign money judgment before German enforcement proceedings are concluded even if the judgment creditor is prepared to post security; there are, however, exceptions under certain treaties. Of course, the debtor’s property can be attached using pre-judgment remedies (such as attachment, personal arrest, or interim injunction) under the general rules of German civil procedure regardless of whether the creditor’s claim has been reduced to a judgment. The provisions apply to every defendant in a German enforcement action regardless of nationality.